


Eye of the Beholder

by Dreamshaper



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Colleagues to Friends, Erin and Abby never fought but no Holtz at the beginning, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Parts of it follow the movie, SUCH a slow burn omg I'm so sorry, Slow Burn, This will have angst, also descriptions of ouchies cause I'm me, and bits of hurt/comfort, and fluff, au-ish, dramatic backstories included!, parts don't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-01-23 01:44:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 33,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12495684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: Erin and Abby hit a roadblock in their paranormal investigation as they realize they need an engineer to continue their work. After reaching out to their contacts, one Jillian Holtzmann is recommended to them - only for the engineer to seem quite unwilling at first. Eager to get her on the team, Erin won't give up so fast though, and finds more than a colleague in the process.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go with another one, cause I'm still trash for this ship, lol. It's sorta AU-ish, but still will borrow parts and elements from the movie. I hope you'll enjoy :D

It wasn’t often that the lab at Higgins University was quiet, but when it was, it usually wasn’t a good sign; and so, Erin wasn’t surprised the slightest when said quietness was broken by a loud crash, followed by her colleague and best friend cursing harshly.

“Are you okay?” she raised her voice to be heard over the cursing and the hissing of the fire extinguisher which followed it; for a few seconds, the only response was more hissing, then it stopped, a heavy sigh coming before Erin finally got an answer.

“Yes, I’m fine”, Abby told her as she waved her hand in an attempt to get the smoke out of her immediate vicinity, “but this PKE meter is not. I’m not even sure it can still be called a PKE meter.”

She looked at the melted mess she had created in dismay, and Erin sighed, shaking her head; this wasn’t the first time this happened, and if they didn’t find another solution soon, she knew that it would happen again, a thought she wasn’t all too pleased about.

“We need an engineer”, she thus said, not the first time she told Abby this, but she hoped that this time, it would be the last, “you know we do, we just can’t build the equipment we need on our own.”

“Yes, I know”, Abby sighed, with another unhappy look at the melted tool, “I was hoping we could manage on our own, but clearly, we can’t. But you know it won’t be easy to get an engineer in here, right? And even if we find someone willing to work with us, the funding is gonna be an issue, too.”

“Leave finding someone to me”, Erin gave back, her mind already racing as she went through the few contacts she still had – publishing their book had been somewhat damaging to their reputation, but not everyone saw them as delusional or as frauds, even though some of the people who supported their ideas did so quietly and would never openly admit it, “and you talk to the dean about extra funding, make some use of how scared he is of you.”

At this, Abby snickered, making Erin smile slightly as well; and once Abby had nodded her agreement to handling things this way, the physicist got to work, e-mailing anyone she could think of who might be helpful for their search of an engineer, working through her contacts meticulously, barely noticing how time passed as she sent out one e-mail after the other.

She was all too aware that this might not lead anywhere, that none of her contacts would be able to introduce her to an engineer who was willing to work in a paranormal studies lab; she told herself though that it was a start, and perhaps, they’d even be lucky and would end up getting a contact which might be useful.

Feeling quite good about this first step they had taken towards finding an engineer, Erin knew that for now, all they could do was wait; and so, she went back to her work, glancing at her inbox every now and then though, quietly hoping that she would get a response soon, and unaware of the chain of events she had set in motion with the few lines she had sent out.

* * *

To Erin’s dismay, nobody responded with anything helpful that day, and she felt a bit disheartened when she finally left the lab at six and headed home; there, she kept busy enough that for a while, she forgot all about their newly started search for an engineer – until she, more out of habit than curiousness, checked her mails once more before she’d get ready for bed and saw, to her surprise and delight, that she had received another answer, crossing her fingers that it’d be helpful this time.

The sender, one R. Gorin from MIT, according to the mail address, wasn’t one she was familiar with, and Erin found herself wondering how her mail had reached this person; figuring though that, in the end, it didn’t make much of a difference if it’d lead to them finding an engineer, she clicked on it, holding her breath as she waited to see what this person had written.

_Dear Dr Gilbert_ , the e-mail began, _it has come to my attention that you are looking to employ an engineer for your lab at Higgins University. While I personally have no expertise or even experience with the field you work in, one of my former students might be very well suited for the work you described._

Excited, Erin read on, happy to see that the professor already had provided contact info for said student, even though it was just an e-mail address and no phone number; Dr Gorin then listed some of the projects said student had worked on during her time at MIT, and Erin found herself quite impressed, especially when she realized that the machines and devices had been made during a time when the woman had still been a student and hadn’t finished her doctorate yet.

Quickly, she typed up a reply once she had finished reading, thanking the professor for her help and reassuring her that she’d contact the former student she had recommended at once; after she had sent that message, she excitedly texted Abby about the recommendation, then found the address Dr Gorin had given her and started to write, biting her lip as she tried to find the perfect words which would convince this new contact to work for them.

_Dear Dr Holtzmann,_ Erin began, figuring that this was a good start, _I hope this message does not reach you at an inconvenient time. You have been recommended to me by Dr Rebecca Gorin as a very talented engineer, exactly what my colleague Dr Abby Yates and I are looking for to advance our work. Dr Yates and I, Dr Erin Gilbert, run the Paranormal Research Laboratory at Higgins University and we’d love to introduce you to our work and ideas._

She added an excerpt from their book and a short description of the work they would hire the engineer for, feeling quite excited as she typed the last few lines, even though she cautioned herself, all too aware that this contact might not lead anywhere, either.

_Dr Yates and I would be happy to hear back from you_ , Erin let the engineer know after all the relevant information had been put into the text, wanting to get the point across that they needed someone as quickly as possible without appearing too desperate, not quite sure if she had managed this, but knowing she’d only end up rewriting the whole thing a dozen times if she’d go over it again.

And so, she added “with best regards” and her name, then clicked Send before she could change her mind; she waited a minute to make sure that the mail had gone through and that she hadn’t ended up putting a typo into the engineer’s name, feeling excited again once she shut down her laptop and got ready for bed, part of her daring to hope that perhaps, she’d have a reply in her inbox in the next morning already, and that it’d be a positive one which would finally lead to some progress with the more practical side of their work.

Feeling quite good after having reached out like that, Erin made her way to the bathroom for her evening routine; and when she got done with this and returned to the bedroom, the blinking of her phone caught her eye, signalling that a message had been received, the physicist not looking immediately though, figuring that it was Abby’s response to the excited text she had sent before writing to Dr Holtzmann.

Thus, she only looked once she had gotten comfortable in bed – and so, she found herself quite surprised and excited again when she realized that it was, in fact, the engineer’s reply, and she quickly swiped over the screen to have the message displayed, only for her heart to sink at what she read.

_I’m no Doctor_ , the e-mail started fairly impolite, without any greeting or preamble, making Erin frown a bit, _and I don’t work in labs. If your stuff can be done from home, fine, I’ll tell you my hourly rates, but if not, no business._

Shaking her head to herself at the rude tone, Erin put the phone down, deciding to take care of this in the next day, after speaking with Abby; and with that decision made, she got comfortable in bed, and soon drifted off into sleep, slumbering peacefully until her alarm clock woke her up again in the next morning.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m not sure this is possible”, Abby sighed once Erin had shown her the engineer’s reply, a bit put off as well by the harsh wording, “I mean, I guess she could do things like the PKE meter at home, if we give her all our specs. But the other, more advanced stuff, like traps and something to immobilize ghosts?”

“I know”, Erin gave back with a sigh of her own, and another dismayed look at the answer she had received, “but it’s a start. We haven’t even found a ghost we can try to trap yet, and to find one, the PKE meter is going to be necessary. If she can build that for us at her home, I’ll take it.”

“And it’s not like anyone else responded, right”, Abby half stated, half asked with a little frown, earning a nod from her colleague and best friend, “alright, let’s give this a try then. If her hourly rates aren’t insanely high, that is.”

“Alright”, Erin said, smiling a bit again – it wasn’t much progress, she knew, it didn’t mean that they would have a functioning PKE meter anytime soon, but it was a start, and she told herself it was better than nothing.

And so, she moved back to her desk and, after refilling her coffee mug, began composing a reply to the engineer; she gave her best to sound friendly, no matter how rude the woman’s answer had been, even though it was a bit hard, the impulse to write back just as rudely somewhat prominent.

_Dear Miss Holtzmann,_ she began, remembering the engineer’s information that she was no doctor, _my colleague and I are happy to inform you that one of the projects we are looking to hire an engineer for does not require work in our lab. I took the liberty to attach our specifications for one of the tools we need built, we’d be happy to hear your ideas, if you can build this for us and the estimate of work hours it will require. Please also let us know your hourly rates for such a project._

_Best regards_

_Dr Erin Gilbert and Dr Abigail Yates_

“Sent”, she told Abby once she had hit the send button, “let’s see what she responds this time. If she’s so rude again, I might just change my mind after all and not hire her.”

Abby shrugged, then nodded, figuring that for now, all they could do was wait; Erin let out a small sigh, then pushed the engineer and her rudeness out of her mind and focused on her work, soon lost in the equations and numbers again, for a while forgetting all about equipment and the fact that they had troubles finding someone to build it for them.

* * *

At the same time, Holtzmann was looking at the mail she had received, not quite having expected an answer – she had been rude on purpose when she had replied to the unexpected mail the previous evening, and had been fairly sure that this was it, that after that rude answer, this mysterious Dr Gilbert wouldn’t bother to write to her again.

Apparently, this had been a wrong assumption though, she had to admit as she looked at the content of the mail; she wasn’t quite sure what to think of this, the plans the woman had sent along with her still surprisingly polite text were intriguing, but it still felt like the setup for some sort of prank, what with the paranormal research and the fact that they wanted her to build something which apparently would be used for that research.

Frowning, she looked at the first e-mail again, at the book excerpt the physicist had sent with that; a quick Google search showed her that the book did exist, was sold on Amazon and as an audiobook version on Books on Tape, a clear sign that this wasn’t some sort of weird prank.

Still she looked further, making sure that the address from which the e-mail had been sent was legit and from the institute Dr Gilbert had mentioned; that turned out to be the case, as well, and she finally decided that this was a genuine request and not someone trying to prank her, even though it still seemed quite strange.

“Paranormal research”, Holtzmann mumbled to herself, shaking her head, not quite sure what to think of this; the plans for the PKE meter, she discovered after taking another, closer look at them, were surprisingly well done, well enough that she thought she could make them a reality, even if she’d need to get some materials for it, things she didn’t just have lying around in her lab at home.

She didn’t want to get these things for something which might not be a serious request though, and so, she grabbed her cell phone and dialled her former mentor’s number, glad when the call was taken fairly quickly, even though she knew Dr Gorin was in the lab at MIT in this very moment.

“Jillian”, the well-known, dry voice of her mentor greeted her, “what can I do for you?”

“Just a quick thing”, Holtzmann gave back, “I got an email from one Dr Gilbert, and she claims she got the contact from you. Is that true?”

“It is”, Dr Gorin confirmed, Holtzmann grimacing to herself as she realized that she could have saved herself the googling and searching if she had called Dr Gorin right away – because she knew that her former mentor wouldn’t have given her contact information to someone who wasn’t who they claimed to be, and so, she certainly had done some research of her own before she had given her e-mail address to this Dr Gilbert.

“Dr Gilbert and her colleague are apparently looking for an engineer”, Dr Gorin went on, not telling her anything new, “and it sounded like something you might be interested in.”

“Well, yes”, Holtzmann had to admit, knowing better than to deny this, “I told her that I don’t do work in other labs, she seems okay with that, she sent me a few specs for one of the things she needs. I might give it a try, I’ll just need a few extra things.”

“Mail me a list”, Gorin replied with what Holtzmann had been hoping for, “and I’ll make sure you get these things. It’s nothing illegal, right?”

“No”, Holtzmann reassured her, a slight smile briefly curling her lips, “it’s not. I’ll send it to you, thanks, Dr Gorin.”

“No problem”, the elder woman reassured her, “I’ll let you know once I sent them, and of course if there are any delays. If you need anything else, just let me know, alright?”

She didn’t add anything about how Holtzmann should give working at a lab outside her home a try, and Holtzmann was quite glad about this – they had had this discussion before, a few times, but lately, Dr Gorin hadn’t brought it up anymore, making her wonder if she finally had given up on that certain topic.

_Probably not_ , she thought to herself while Dr Gorin asked her how she was doing and she gave her usual answer, “still alive, am I not”, _she’s just not asking you for now. You know she’ll bring it up again sooner or later._

At least during this talk though, Dr Gorin didn’t bring it up; instead, she told her to take care, and that she’d get the things Holtzmann would need for this newest project as fast as possible, the engineer reassuring her that she would and thanking her once more, before she ended the call, making sure to do so before Dr Gorin could get the idea to bring work outside her home up again after all.

Glad that she had avoided it this time, Holtzmann put the phone back on her desk, then looked at the laptop screen again; and as she typed up a response to Dr Gilbert, she told herself to be less rude this time, figuring that it wouldn’t hurt to use a friendlier tone if she actually was going to work for the woman and her colleague, unaware of the changes this project would soon bring to her life.


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh look”, Erin said after Abby and she had eaten lunch, gesturing at her laptop, “that engineer wrote back. Let’s see what she says?”

Nodding, Abby moved to peer over her shoulder, watching how Erin opened the message, the two women reading it in silence, Erin quite surprised at the sudden change in tone of the other woman’s writing, the rudeness from the first message completely gone.

_Dear Dr Gilbert,_ it started out with a proper greeting this time, already an improvement, _I took a look at the plans you sent and they do like quite interesting. I can definitely build this for you, I estimate it will take fifteen to twenty work hours, possible difficulties included. I take $55 per hour, if this is an agreeable price for you, let me know._

It was somewhat expensive, Erin thought to herself with a small grimace after she had calculated quickly how much they would have to pay for the PKE meter; she knew though that this was pretty much the standard rate for an engineer, and figured that they wouldn’t find someone to do the job for less money – after all, Jillian Holtzmann was still the only one who had responded, and she didn’t want to waste any more time looking for someone else.

_I’ll be waiting for your response,_ she read on as she pondered these thoughts, _no hard feelings if it’s too expensive._

_Best regards_

_J. Holtzmann  
_

_PS: Just Holtzmann is sufficient_

“Seems like she came around”, Abby commented, making Erin nod, “after how rude she was. And now that we have a figure, I’ll go talk to the dean about that extra funding.”

“Don’t make him cry this time”, Erin gave back, earning a snicker from her best friend; she smiled back at her, then let out a content sigh and leaned back in her chair, feeling as if things were working out just the way she had been hoping for, especially once the dean would grant them the extra funding.

She didn’t doubt for a moment that he would, knowing the effect Abby had on the man; he was lucky, she reflected, that Abby and she just wanted the money they truly needed for their work, and that they didn’t abuse how frightened he was of Abby to fill their own pockets.

Still she waited with responding to the engineer until Abby actually was back and told her that it all had been taken care of; only then, Erin responded to the other woman, letting her know that the number of hours and the rate Holtzmann had given was alright, feeling giddy by the time she finished the reply and hit the Send button.

“There”, she then said, leaning back into her chair and smiling, “all sent. Now let’s wait and see if and what that engineer delivers.”

Abby nodded, feeling as good as Erin about this bit of progress; she beamed at Erin, then even rubbed her hands gleefully, the physicist’s smile widening, even though she frowned a bit at what Abby said next.

“Well, at least we’ll have a PKE meter if this works out”, she stated, “but for all the other stuff? Still not sure this can be done at someone’s home. But hey, maybe, if this works out, we can get her to work in the lab with us after all.”

“I guess we’ll see”, Erin gave back, making her colleague and best friend nod; they both found it strange how quickly this engineer had shot down the idea of working in the lab with them, but then, Erin reasoned to herself, she had met stranger people in the scientific community, with their quirks and weird habits, so she figured that she shouldn’t judge.

And so, she shrugged it off for now, and focused on her work again, wondering how soon the engineer would get done with the PKE meter and how they would receive it then, not liking the thought of having it sent per mail, but figuring that it wouldn’t be up to her to decide; and so, she added it to the “wait and see” list and pushed the thought aside along with her questions about the mysterious engineer, concentrating on her equations and calculations, even though she knew that her thoughts would return to the PKE meter and Holtzmann’s work on it over and over in the days to come.

* * *

Five days later, a package was delivered to the lab, by a nervous looking assistant – people often looked nervous when they came to this lab, possibly because of the explosions which frequently could be heard from it, and possibly also because of the field the two women worked in, people either not taking them seriously and writing them off as ridiculous frauds or seeing them as mentally unstable and thus acting very carefully around them.

This had bothered Erin, many years ago, when Abby and she had been in High School together, then had gone on to college; at this point in her life though, she didn’t really care anymore, and so, she ignored the man’s obvious nervousness as she took the package from him and thanked him with a friendly smile.

“Abby!” she called out to her best friend the moment they were alone in the lab again, curiously weighing the package, wondering if this was the PKE meter and if the engineer really had just mailed it to them, “we got a package!”

“Oooh”, Abby let out as she hurried to Erin’s side, “what is it? The PKE meter? Open it!”

Quickly, Erin complied, opening the package; and to her surprise, it really was the PKE meter, wrapped in what looked like ten feet of bubble wrap, a computer-printed note accompanying it, the physicist feeling excited when she unwrapped the device.

“Dear Dr Gilbert, dear Dr Yates”, Abby read the note out loud while Erin carefully started unwrapping the PKE meter, “I hope this is what you were hoping for. Sadly I had no chance to test it, no ghosts or other entities in my house, but it should work just fine. Let me know in case it doesn’t. My bill is on the back of this note. Have a good day, signed J. Holtzmann.”

“Wow”, Erin let out as she got the first good look at the device, “that looks even better than I dared hope for. I can’t wait for a chance to test it, look, she even included a display!”

“And it cost less than I feared it would”, Abby told her, holding up the bill as if to underline her words, “we definitely should keep her in our contact list for further projects, but that whole no working in a lab thing is gonna make it difficult…”

“Maybe we can get her to change her mind about that”, Erin said, her thoughtful tone telling Abby that she was already thinking of something, an assumption which was proven correct when the physicist grabbed the package the PKE meter had arrived in and took another look at it, a small, but satisfied smile curling her lips moments later as she looked up and at her best friend.

“Her address is on this, her New York address”, she let Abby know, making her smirk as well, the brunette knowing Erin well enough to know where this was going – the Erin she had gotten to know back at high school never would have been brave enough to even think of something like this, but she knew how much her friend had grown since then, and so, the redhead’s next words weren’t quite a surprise.

“I think I’ll drop by there and see if I can’t talk her into working with us”, Erin said, quickly but carefully tearing out the part of the package on which the sender address had been written, “maybe it’s rude to do so unannounced, but…”

“But we don’t have her phone number”, Abby solemnly said, Erin’s smile widening as she nodded, “and sending an email, well, who knows when she sees that?”

“Exactly”, Erin agreed, already grabbing her bag, “I’ll let you know how it went.”

“Good luck”, Abby told her, earning another smile – before Erin headed out and hailed a cab, unaware that she was about to not only change her and Abby’s life, but Holtzmann’s, as well.


	4. Chapter 4

As it turned out, the engineer didn’t live far from Higgins, something Erin took as just another plus for her plan to convince the woman to work solely with them; they hadn’t even tested the PKE meter yet, but just looking at it and holding it had shown Erin what good work the engineer had done, and she felt excited and even a bit giddy by the time the cabby stopped the car and let her know that they were there.

By the time she had paid and had tipped him and was standing on the sidewalk, Erin felt a bit nervous – she had come a long way from the shy and anxiety-plagued teenager she had been, but still situations such as this one made her heart speed up and her palms sweaty – but told herself that she could do this, taking in a deep breath as she studied the fairly non-descript house, not quite looking like the home of someone who might be just the sort of brilliant engineer they were looking for.

_Come on_ , she prep-talked herself as she walked up to the front door, _you can do this. You stood up to your parents and to your peers and to anyone who made fun of you for your work, you can ring this bell and speak to this woman._

She took in another controlled, slow breath, then reached out and rang the bell; for a while, nothing happened, and just when she reached out to ring again, footsteps approached from behind the door, the physicist frowning to herself when it didn’t open though, a voice she assumed belonged to Holtzmann calling out from behind the wood instead. “Who’s there?”

“Dr Erin Gilbert”, Erin gave back, raising her voice to make sure she’d be heard through the door, “we received the PKE meter today and I wanted to speak to you? It was amazing work!”

There was no response for so long that Erin started to worry again, wondering if this had been a bad idea after all, if she had crossed some sort of line she hadn’t been aware of; perhaps, she thought to herself, just coming here hadn’t been a good idea after all, even though she wasn’t quite sure why someone would hide away in their home like this – until the sound of a key turning in a lock came, followed by the door opening, and she could see why.

* * *

When her doorbell had rang, Holtzmann at first had been tempted to ignore it, only to realize that she had asked Dr Gorin for some materials and that this might be the delivery; and so, she went to answer the door, out of habit asking who was there before she answered, and freezing when she heard the response.

_What is she doing here?_ she frantically thought to herself, staring at the door as if the wood would provide her with an answer, should she just look long enough, even though Erin more or less already had told her why she was there, _just showing up like this out of the blue, who does that?_

_A paranormal researcher, apparently,_ she answered her own question, not quite sure what to think of this, and not sure what to do – anyone else, she knew, would have just opened the door, but not many out there were like her, and the last thing she wanted was to freak the woman out, she had enjoyed the work she had done for her colleague and her and was willing to build more for them, but knew that the chance for this might vanish into nothingness the moment she’d open the door.

_Well, she knows you’re home,_ Holtzmann then had to realize, grimacing to herself, _so if you just ignore her or are rude to her through the door, you certainly won’t work for them anymore. Just open that door and get it over with, this will end badly either way._

She took in a deep breath, then unlocked the door and pulled it open, ready for the looks of disgust or pity – not sure which would be worse – and quite surprised by the reaction she did get, in the end.

* * *

When the door finally did open, Erin hadn’t been quite sure what to expect, and later, she’d admit to herself that it hadn’t been this, but while it was surprising, she managed to keep that emotion from showing through her features, and once she’d have time to think about the whole encounter, in the quietness of her home, she’d realize that this possibly was what had made it happen that Holtzmann was willing to talk to her in the first place.

She could tell just from the first look that whatever had happened to the woman in front of her certainly had been horrible and painful, and perhaps had done more lasting damage than she could see at first glance; the left side of Holtzmann’s face was heavily scarred, what Erin assumed to be burn scars roughening up the skin from her brow all the way down to her throat, possibly farther than that, her ear on that side not much more than a strangely molten looking lump.

From the way she found it hard to meet Erin’s eyes, the physicist quickly realized two things – that this was the main reason why she had been rude and had claimed she didn’t work in labs, and that she was expecting some sort of negative reaction, and even though she didn’t even know her properly yet, her heart clenched up in sympathy.

“Hello”, she said, figuring that this was a good start, eager to make it clear that she wasn’t going to react in any of the negative ways Holtzmann might be expecting, “I’m sorry for just dropping by here unannounced, but your address was on the package and after the amazing work you did on the PKE meter, I really want to discuss the option of further projects in person.”

“…okay”, Holtzmann gave back, finally looking up to meet her eyes, and apparently not finding there what she had been worried about or perhaps even afraid of; she held Erin’s gaze for a moment longer, the physicist smiling at her, then cleared her throat and stepped aside, pulling the door open further as she did so.

“Come in then?” she half said, half asked, Erin giving her another smile as she thanked her and stepped inside; clearly, Holtzmann wasn’t used to having visitors, standing there somewhat awkwardly for a second before she asked Erin to follow her, and led her into what the redhead assumed was the living room, offering her a seat there.

“Um, you want a drink?” she said once Erin had gotten comfortable on the couch, “I have soda or I can make coffee…”

She trailed off and shifted from one foot to the other, making it clear that she wasn’t perfectly comfortable with this; Erin felt a bit bad now for ambushing her at her home like this, but figured that just getting up now and leaving would be the exact opposite of helpful, and so, she smiled a smile which she hoped was calming and reassuring at the blonde, glad when Holtzmann did look a bit less uncomfortable in response.

“I’m good, thank you”, Erin let her know, “and again, I’m sorry for just showing up here like this without asking you first, it’s just… Abby and I got very excited about the PKE meter, we didn’t get to test it yet, but it looks amazing, so I wanted to speak to you as fast as possible. I can leave if this is a bad time, maybe we can schedule a proper appointment?”

“It’s fine”, Holtzmann let her know, sitting down as well, still looking a bit stiff, but not as uncomfortable as she had minutes ago, and only relaxing further when Erin gave her another smile, “I’m just… not quite used to entertaining people here, you know. Or to having work related meetings here.”

Erin almost apologized again for just showing up like this, then realized this would be somewhat redundant and just gave her another smile, feeling a bit less bad about this ambush when, after a moment, Holtzmann smiled back at her, a shy and tiny smile, but better than none at all.

“I don’t want to occupy too much of your time”, the physicist told her, earning a shrug from the engineer, “especially after just dropping by like this. So shall we get to business?”

Holtzmann shrugged again, then nodded, and Erin gave her another bright smile before she took hold of her bag and pulled out some of the files she had brought along; and not long after, the engineer forgot all about how strange this was and how uncomfortable she had been when she had realized who was at her door as she got more and more enthralled and excited by the projects Erin and her colleague were planning, unaware that this was only the first step of a long journey she’d soon began with the two women.


	5. Chapter 5

In the next morning, the first thing Abby noticed when she came to the lab was Erin’s exceptionally good mood, especially for the early hour – Erin was many things, she knew, but a morning person was not one of those; and the second thing she took note of was the somewhat smug smile the physicist gave her, prompting her to raise a questioning eyebrow at her best friend.

“I take it your talk with the mysterious engineer went well?” she then said, not surprised when Erin nodded, “she’s gonna work with us then?”

“On a trial basis at first”, Erin told her, proud of having accomplished this, “but I’m sure it’ll all work out just fine, she seemed really enthusiastic about the work we do by the time I left. I just have to… warn you about something.”

“Okay?” Abby gave back, not sure what to expect; not wanting to offend her by implying that she might be freaked out by the sight of burn scars, but also not wanting to risk the sort of reaction Holtzmann was clearly afraid of, Erin chose her words wisely, glad when Abby just listened without taking offense.

“She’s… I don’t want to say disfigured, cause that sounds so rude”, Erin let her best friend know, “there’s… a lot of scarring? It looked like burn scars to me, but I didn’t ask, so I’m not sure. Anyway… I know neither of us would judge anyone by their looks but… I do believe it’s the main reason she didn’t want to work outside her home at first, so…”

“I’ll make sure to not stare or react in any weird way”, Abby reassured her, earning a relieved smile, “and thanks for warning me, I guess, if it had come out of nowhere… how did you react?”

“Not at all”, Erin told her, a bit proud, “I mean, it was unexpected, but if I had reacted the wrong way, she certainly wouldn’t have talked to me, and I didn’t want to risk that.”

Abby nodded, figuring that this made sense, glad now that Erin had warned her, not wanting to jeopardize the chance of having an actual engineer work in the lab with them, feeling gleeful at the idea, almost bouncing on the spot when she asked when the engineer would start working with them.

“She should drop by today, around nine”, Erin let her know, smiling at the researcher’s enthusiasm, “I just hope she won’t change her mind, but she did seem quite enthralled by our ideas and work.”

She checked her watch and saw that it was half past eight, feeling impatient and a bit giddy, as well; knowing though that for now, all they could do was wait, she went to get herself some coffee, and then got to work, trying to ignore her worries about Holtzmann changing her mind and not coming to the lab after all.

Forcing herself to not look at her watch every other minute, Erin tried to caution herself, told herself that it was very likely that Holtzmann might cancel or simply not show up; the way the woman had avoided it to look her in the face when she had opened the door at her house had shown how uncomfortable it made her to let people see her, and the trip from her home to the lab might keep her from showing up after all.

Still she couldn’t help herself, but just had to hope it would all work out just fine; and apparently, she was lucky, a soft knock coming from the door right at nine o’clock, Erin and Abby exchanging an excited look before the physicist called out “Come in!”.

The door opened, and Erin couldn’t hold back a happy smile as Holtzmann poked her head in; she wasn’t quite sure if the engineer smiled back, since she was wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled down as far over her face as it would go, hiding as much of her features as possible, but she was there, and Erin figured that this was a good start.

“Hi”, Holtzmann said as she entered the lab and pulled the door close behind herself, then stood there a bit awkward, “um. Here I am…?”

“Welcome”, Erin smiled, eager to make her feel welcome and help her relax, not wanting her to be uncomfortable around Abby and herself, “we’re glad you’re joining us. Please, have a seat.”

She gestured at the chair opposite of her desk, normally used by students who came to her for help; she took note of the somewhat uneasy look Holtzmann gave Abby before she reached up and pushed the hood back, glancing at the researcher again as she exposed her face, Erin feeling bad for her again at the apprehension in her gaze.

_As if she’s expecting her to scream or throw up or something_ , she thought to herself, careful to not let any of those thoughts show through her features, figuring that pity would be just as upsetting for the engineer as any other negative reaction, _I wonder what sort of shit she had to go through ever since this happened…_

“Nice to meet you, I’m Abby Yates”, Abby introduced herself while Erin pondered these things, holding her hand out to the younger woman, “but you can just call me Abby.”

“Jillian Holtzmann”, the engineer gave back as they shook back, “I, um, I go by Holtzmann, or Holtz. Whatever you prefer.”

Abby nodded and smiled brightly at the blonde, and after a moment, the engineer shyly smiled back, then took the seat Erin had offered; Abby sat down as well, and they started talking business, and Erin was happy to see that Holtzmann relaxed visibly as they spoke, nodding along when Erin detailed the work they had in mind for her, the physicist quite sure that things would work out just fine, feeling giddy and happy at the thought, suddenly just knowing that they would be successful with their work soon.

* * *

 

The talk had ended just the way Erin had hoped, with Holtzmann confirming that she’d work with them, on a trial basis at first and, if things would work out, with a proper contract; and not long after Holtzmann had shown up at the lab, she had her own desk, and was removing tools from the backpack she had brought, placing them on the desk with some sort of system Erin couldn’t quite figure out from watching her.

She also figured though that the engineer knew what she was doing, and thus didn’t comment on it; instead, after watching her for a few minutes, she focused on her own work again, barely looking up when Abby, a while later, let them know that she’d head out and get lunch, doing so after she’d taken their orders.

“Um, Erin?” Holtzmann broke the silence which had formed once Abby had left, making the physicist look up from her work, expecting a question about where the bathroom was or something equally mundane, so what Holtzmann did ask sort of came out of the left field, “so… I figured you warned Abby about… this.”

She made a vague gesture at her face, and yet again, Erin’s heart clenched up; she didn’t try to deny it though, but simply shrugged, not quite sure where this was going, but figuring she’d find out when the engineer continued.

“So it makes sense that she didn’t freak out”, Holtzmann did so after a few moments of sorting her thoughts, “but… no one warned you, right. I talked to Dr Gorin and she said you didn’t call her before you showed up at my house out of nowhere. So… how come you didn’t freak out? You only looked… surprised, and not even very surprised, just a bit.”

In response, Erin put her pen down, giving the blonde a brief, but kind smile; then, she made a gesture at the lab, and when she replied, it apparently had nothing to do with what Holtzmann had asked, the engineer feeling a bit confused, but going along with it, figuring that there was a reason for Erin answering her question this way.

“Do you know how Abby and I got into this business?” Erin wanted to know, making the blonde shake her head; she had a moment to wonder if this had been in the book excerpt Erin had e-mailed her before she had started working with them, and felt bad, then the physicist continued, apparently not offended by Holtzmann’s lack of knowledge.

“When I was eight”, the redhead told her, “the mean old lady next door died. My parents dragged me along to her funeral – I wouldn’t have gone if I’d had a choice, she was never nice and actually frightened me – and the night after the funeral, her ghost appeared at the end of my bed.”

“Oh yikes”, Holtzmann let out, not sure what else to say, and still wondering how this answered her question; Erin gave her another brief smile, then her face grew serious again as she spoke on, the engineer’s eyes going wide at her words.

“She’d do this every night, for a year”, Erin let her know, “stand there, stare at me, and then vomit blood all over me. My parents didn’t believe me and sent me to therapy for years, and once the kids at school found out, that didn’t make it easier but… Well, the point of my story is, I had a malevolent ghost in my bedroom every night for a year when I was little. No offense, but it takes more than scarring to freak me out.”

“Yeah, that makes sense”, Holtzmann had to admit, making Erin smile at her again; and after a moment, she smiled back, for a moment even forgetting how she always had been sure that smiling only made her look worse, for the first time since she had left her home this morning to go to the lab completely sure that she hadn’t made a mistake and that this had been the right choice to make.


	6. Chapter 6

For the next few days, the three of them worked in the lab together, and both Erin and Abby quickly were sure that hiring Holtzmann had been the best choice they could have made; she was as good at her job as the PKE meter had implied she was, always grasping quickly what the two women had in mind when they showed her what often just amounted to scribbles on a notepad, and making these vague ideas reality with surprising speed and a skill which stunned Erin and Abby again and again, no matter how often they saw it displayed.

“This is beyond impressive”, Erin said a week after Holtzmann had started working for them, looking at the proton gun the engineer had been working on until their lunch had arrived, “all we had for this prototype was some vague drawings we made on napkins during lunch!”

“It’s probably not as impressive as it looks now when we get to use it”, Holtzmann gave back, in the self-depreciating tone both Erin and Abby had noticed she often used when speaking about herself or her work, “it looks a bit clunky and I’m not sure it’s actually going to work.”

“I can’t wait to test it”, Abby told her, smiling as she took another, closer look at the device, “you guys, the moment we get a client, I want to see how this works.”

“We should test it first”, Holtzmann gave back, appearing a bit nervous now, “I mean, not when there is an actual ghost around? What if it malfunctions or… I don’t know, blows up? I’m not sure I like the idea of taking this out without a test run.”

“I agree”, Erin nodded, trusting in Holtzmann’s skill, but figuring that it couldn’t hurt to test the equipment before they would actually use it in the field, “a test can’t hurt, just to be on the safe side.”

A knock from the door interrupted them before Abby could respond to this, and she called out “Yes?” instead of commenting on safety and testing; the door opened, and an elder man stepped into the lab, smiling a bit insecurely at the three women, Erin taking note of how his smile faltered when he got a closer look at Holtzmann, having to hold back the urge to glare at him.

“Yes?” she said a bit louder than perhaps necessary, making him look at her, from the corner of her eye noticing how Holtzmann’s gaze had dropped, focusing intently on the prototype now, “how can we help you?”

“Um, hi”, he said, his gaze wandering to the engineer again for a second before he looked back at Erin with a noticeable amount of willpower, “my name’s Ed Mulgrave, I’m here about your book?”

Abby lit up in excitement at this, and while Erin was still a bit miffed at him about his reaction to Holtzmann, she smiled a bit, as well, telling herself that people staring was a somewhat understandable reaction and that she couldn’t get mad at everyone who did so, figuring that she’d better reserve her anger for someone who’d actually say something mean or insulting.

“I don’t know where else to go”, Ed went on, wringing his hands now, his next words only making the women more excited, “I’m owner of the Aldridge mansion and… I believe it’s haunted.”

* * *

Holtzmann had made it quite clear that the proton gun prototype was not ready to be taken along, and hadn’t given in even when Abby had put on her best set of puppy dog eyes; and so, all they had was a video camera and the PKE meter when they left the lab and headed to Aldridge Mansion, but still all three women felt excited, Erin bouncing her leg nervously in the passenger seat of Abby’s car, the researcher driving and Holtzmann in the backseat.

Now that the PKE meter was close to actually being used, the engineer felt nervous, checking it over again, not wanting it to blow up in Abby’s hands or in her own; she felt fairly confident that it would work by the time they arrived at the mansion and Abby parked the car, but still felt a bit worried as they got out of the vehicle and made their way to the mansion, where Ed and the tour guide who apparently had encountered the ghost were waiting.

While Abby interviewed the man about what he had seen, Holtzmann checked the PKE meter once more – until Erin put one hand on her shoulder and made the blonde look at her, the physicist giving her a calming smile when their eyes met.

“It’s going to work”, the redhead told her, with a confidence Holtzmann wished she could have, “I’m sure it’s going to work. You did an amazing job.”

Holtzmann just gave a brief shrug, prompting Erin to squeeze her shoulder; and just then, Abby finished talking to the tour guide and he handed her the keys to the mansion, the researcher leading the way, Erin and Holtzmann trailing along behind her.

“You guys think this is legit?” Erin asked once they were out of earshot; Holtzmann, who had been more focused on the PKE meter than on what the man actually had been saying, just shrugged, but Abby nodded, readying the camera as she replied.

“He was genuinely frightened”, she let the other two know, “I could tell, just from how he looked when he described the ghost. And according to his boss, he soiled himself.”

Erin grimaced at that, but figured that certainly, the two men wouldn’t have made something like that up just to prank them; and when she entered the mansion, she immediately felt the fine hairs at the back of her neck rise, a shudder running down her spine, the way both Abby and Holtzmann stiffened up showing that they had felt something, as well.

“Something’s definitely going on here”, Abby said in a low voice, making the other two nod, “you guys feel that too, right? Holtz? The PK meter?”

Holtzmann switched the device on in response, a bit miffed when nothing happened; undeterred, Erin and Abby walked farther into the mansion, the researcher having the camera ready, prepared to start recording the second something interesting would happen.

Remembering what the guide had said about the ghost showing up in the basement, where apparently, Gertrude Aldridge had been locked up after murdering all of her father’s servants, Abby moved to the locked door leading to said basement; she was dismayed to find it locked, commenting on how something certainly didn’t want them to go in there as she moved on.

Nodding her agreement, Erin followed her, only to nearly lose her footing as she slipped on something; frowning, she looked down, her frown deepening at the green puddle on the floor, Holtzmann watching curiously how she bent down and touched the stuff, then looked up at the ceiling, even though she was quite sure already it hadn’t come from there.

“What is that”, Holtzmann wanted to know, earning a shrug from the physicist; Erin brought her fingers up to her nose to sniff at the weird goo and grimaced at the smell, giving the younger woman a thankful look when she offered her a tissue.

“Thank you”, Erin smiled as she took it and wiped the goo off her fingers; she looked around for a trashcan, couldn’t find one and put it in her pocket, making a mental note to get rid of it later as she followed Abby, Holtzmann by her side now, glancing at the PKE meter every now and then while they caught up to the researcher, Abby having found the portrait of Gertrude Aldridge and studying it, a bit spooked by the painting.

“She certainly looked creepy”, Holtzmann commented, and as if that had set something off, the door leading to the basement rattled in its hinges, making all three women flinch, Erin’s breath catching when the door swung open slowly a moment later, complete with ominous creak.

And then, a blue glow started to shine from the basement, and the PKE meter Holtzmann still was holding lit up, a string of numbers scrolling across the display while the LED lights lit up and started to spin, a clear sign that a supernatural entity was in the building with them.

“Oh wow”, Abby said, glancing at the PKE meter and the spinning lights, “I didn’t even know it did that, good job Holtzmann.”

Holtzmann let out a vaguely agreeing noise, quite transfixed by the blue glow which shone from the door, by now pulsing, as if in sync with some sort of heartbeat none of them could hear; and then, the ghost came floating from the basement, and they could all tell at once that it was Gertrude Aldridge, Erin taking in a sharp breath while Holtzmann switched off the PKE meter and pocketed it, not quite sure why she’d want to have her hands free, but the need being too strong to let her ignore it.

“You’re recording this, right”, Erin whispered, not taking her eyes off of the ghost for a moment; Abby reassured her that she was, filming the apparition as it floated closer to them, looking up from the display though when Erin let her know that she’d try talking to her.

“Be careful”, Abby cautioned, Holtzmann nodding nervously, “she could be malevolent…”

“She seems peaceful”, Erin gave back, still not taking her eyes away from the floating ghostly woman, raising her voice as she addressed her, “hi, hello? I’m Erin Gilbert, doctor of particle physics and—”

She had been planning to tell the ghost that she was a paranormal researcher, but before she could get to that part of her introduction, Gertrude’s ghost let out a blood-curdling cry as she unhinged her jaw – and started spewing slime at her, the green goo unpleasantly sticky and ice-cold as it rained down on her, covering her from head to toe despite her protectively raised hands.

As she gasped for air, freezing from how cold the stuff was and disgusted by how she could feel it slide inside her shirt and down her skin, the ghost let out a nasty laugh, then rushed past her and through the window; and a moment later, Abby and Holtzmann came running up to her, Abby still filming while Holtzmann was wide-eyed and clearly shocked by what they just had witnessed.

“Erin!” Abby fretted while Erin tried to get the slime out of her eyes and mouth at least, grimacing at the horrible taste the stuff left on her tongue, “are you alright?!”

“Fine, fine”, Erin reassured her, unable to hold back another grimace though as at this point, she could feel the goo slide into her underwear, “did you get all that on camera?! Where did she go?”

“Outside”, Holtzmann told her, reaching out as if she wanted to touch the slime, then pulling her hand back at the last second, making Erin wonder if the slime was grossing her out too much or if she, for some strange reason, perhaps thought that her touch wouldn’t be welcome, the way Holtzmann nervously cleared her throat afterwards prompting her to suspect that it was the second option, “um… I’d offer you another hanky, but I’m not sure that would do any good.”

“Guess not”, Erin gave back, then let out a laugh as she fully registered what just had happened, “but this will wash off, and we got a ghost on tape! We got _the whole thing_ on tape!”

“Yes!” Abby cheered, holding the camera up as if to underline her words, “we got it all, down to you getting slimed! This is amazing!”

“And how!” Erin said with another giggle, then threw both arms around Abby, momentarily forgetting that she was still covered in slime and Abby clearly not caring – and after they had hugged for a few moments, Erin reached out and pulled Holtzmann in to join them, as well, making it a group hug, her discomfort about getting slimed forgotten as she couldn’t wait to get the video online and prove to the mass of sceptics out there that ghosts were real and that all three of them had encountered one.


	7. Chapter 7

Once they had made it back to the lab – the drive back there having taken much longer than Erin would have liked, the slime having hardened to a gross dry crust by the time Abby parked the car at Higgins – Erin immediately headed for the shower, regretting that she hadn’t thought of storing fresh clothes at the lab, but then, she thought to herself as she tried to get the goo out of her hair, none of them had expected something like this.

She wondered if Abby had some clothing she could borrow as she worked on her hair, dismayed by how long it took to get the goo out of the auburn strands; and once she finally had gotten it out of her hair, she had to remove it from the rest of her body, as well, hoping that this wouldn’t happen to her again anytime soon when she realized how long she’d been in the shower.

At least, she thought to herself, they had made it back to the college before the laughably bad football team had finished practice and would’ve flooded the shower stalls; and so, she was alone in there when she stepped out and dried herself off, then wrapped the towel around herself, not particularly happy about walking back to the lab like this, but still preferring it to putting on the slime-covered clothes she’d had on during the trip to the mansion. 

“Erin?” Abby’s voice came up just when she got ready to head back to the lab, “you still in there?”

“Yes”, Erin called back, “I only just got done, this stuff was very hard to wash off.”

In response, Abby came strolling into the room, carrying a bundle of what Erin hoped was fresh clothes in her arms; had it been anyone else, she might not have appreciated them just walking in like that, but she had known Abby for years, decades, even, and couldn’t have cared less.

“We realized that your clothing got all slimy, and then I realized that you have no spare clothes here at the lab”, Abby let her know as she held the bundle out to her, “but luckily, Holtzmann sometimes gets cold – well, that’s not lucky for her, I guess – so she brought a hoodie and she said you can borrow it. And I got some sweatpants for late nights, you can have those, too.”

“Thank you”, Erin said with a small sigh of relief, taking the bundle from her best friend, realizing that she’d have to go commando, but finding herself unable to care after the excitement of the day; Abby turned away from her to give her some privacy, and Erin quickly pulled on the pants and the hoodie, able tell at once from how soft the fabric was that this was a piece of clothing Holtzmann used fairly often.

“I’m dressed”, she said once she had closed the zipper, taking note of the MIT logo printed onto the hoodie’s chest, “you can look again, Abby. Holtz is back at the lab?”

“Yes, checking out the video”, Abby nodded, then gave her a strict look, and earning one of confused alarm in response, Abby speaking on though before Erin had to ask what was going on now, “and Erin, while I get it that you might feel protective of our newest member, you can’t get angry at everyone who stares at her.”

“I know”, Erin sighed, telling herself that she shouldn’t be surprised at Abby having picked up on this – she was more perceptive than people usually thought she was, and better at reading people than one would think at first glance, too, “but… I couldn’t help it, just the way she stared at that prototype so she wouldn’t have to look at him stare at her, I felt so bad for her.”

“I know”, it was Abby’s turn to say these words, “I get it, I do, and I’m sure she appreciates it but… You’ll spend a lot of time angry if you get angry at everyone staring at her, that’s all I’m saying.”

Erin sighed again and nodded, then changed the topic by suggesting they should head back to the lab as well and check the video together with Holtzmann; Abby nodded as well, to the physicist’s relief deciding not to push the topic, and two of them made their way back to the lab, where they found Holtzmann at her laptop, focused intently on the video Abby had recorded.

“Hey Holtz”, Erin said, making her look up from the screen and at her, a brief smile curling her lips at the sight of Erin in her hoodie, the redhead smiling back at her as she moved to sit next to her, “first, thanks for the hoodie, second, how did the video come out?”

“Quite good”, Holtzmann let her know, “here, I’ll start it from the beginning… and no problem about the hoodie.”

Erin gave her another bright smile, then sat down next to her, Abby taking the seat on her other side so all three of them could get a good look at the screen; Holtzmann moved to start the video again, and just when she clicked the mouse, Erin leaned closer and placed one hand on the other woman’s shoulder, part of her registering how the engineer momentarily tensed up – before she relaxed noticeably, the way Erin could feel the muscle go slack beneath her palm making her smile a bit again.

The video started innocently enough, with Abby walking along behind Erin and Holtzmann, zooming in on the PKE meter the engineer was holding for a few seconds while she explained who they were and what they were doing; for a while, the video probably wasn’t all too interesting to watch, then the part where the basement door had opened began and Erin leaned forward, even though she had been there when it had happened.

Even though she had witnessed the recorded events first-hand, she still could feel her heart beat faster when the ghost of Gertrude Aldridge appeared on the screen; from how Holtzmann tensed up again, she could tell she wasn’t the only getting excited, and she barely noticed what she was doing as she started rubbing small, soothing circles on the engineer’s back, never taking her eyes off the screen, and thus missing the brief, surprised look the younger woman shot her.

“Wow Abby”, Erin breathed as she watched herself get slimed on screen, Gertrude Aldridge, she herself and the slime which was raining down on her perfectly captured, “that’s amazing!”

“We have to put this online”, Abby said, making both Erin and Holtzmann nod, even though the engineer had to hold back a frown – most of the footage where she could be seen showed her from behind or from her good side, but there were a few frames where the scarring was all too visible, “this is definite proof of what we saw, we have to get this out there.”

“Should we edit this?” Holtzmann wanted to know, with a critical look at the video’s length, “or just put it online as it is?”

“I’d say no edits”, Abby gave back, making Erin nod after a moment, “the more we edit this, the more people will claim that we faked the ghost and the slime, too.”

“I agree with Abby”, Erin said with another nod, “there’ll be people who will claim that this is fake no matter what, and probably quite a few, but if we put this up without any edits, it might help to shut some of those up.”

Holtzmann had to admit that this was a good point, and even though she didn’t like the thought of having her features up on the internet, where anyone could see it, she knew that she couldn’t argue against this, and held her doubts back, just nodding briefly, missing the look of concern Erin shot her, the physicist suspecting why the engineer had brought up editing the video.

She wondered if she should say something, try to reassure her that it would be fine; not wanting to use hollow phrases which might do more harm than good though, she remained quiet, just nodding when Abby said she’d upload it to her YouTube account and post the link to the ghost websites they knew were popular, not missing the brief flash of dismay on Holtzmann’s face, her heart aching for the younger woman as she asked herself if there was anything she could do to make this better.


	8. Chapter 8

Abby had been put in charge of the YouTube account, when Erin and she had started their work at the Higgins lab; and it was also Abby who kept an eye on the comments and on the websites the video had been posted to, while Erin worked on her calculations and Holtzmann was busy with the first proton gun prototype, so focused on her work that she didn’t notice how Erin would glance up and at her every now and then, and watch her work, watch how nimble her fingers moved, the ease with which she handled the various tools.

Unlike Holtzmann herself, Abby did notice how her best friend’s eyes would stray from her papers and her whiteboard every now and then, and focus on the engineer; after one of those moments, she managed to catch Erin’s eye, and raised an eyebrow, the physicist giving her a look of innocence in response and shrugging.

Thankfully, Abby didn’t comment, but kept any thoughts she might have about Erin ogling the newest member of their team to herself; instead of asking Erin what she was doing, she checked the video and the websites again, grumbling at a few of the comments, but lighting up at others, reading the best ones, the ones which believed them, out loud to the team, wisely keeping the not so nice ones to herself.

Just not reading them out loud didn’t mean that Erin and Holtzmann wouldn’t see them, Abby knew, but there was no need to shove the not so nice comments in their faces like that; instead, she closed the website and turned to face her colleagues, making them both pause in their work and look at her by clearing her throat.

“Some of those comments came from people who think they’re haunted”, she reminded them of some of the more frightening comments she had read, “and while a few are clearly written by bored trolls, there’s one or two which I believe are genuine. You guys think we should, I don’t know, offer our services to them? Once we have the gear ready?”

“Worth a try”, Erin said, while Holtzmann nodded after a moment of hesitation, “we’d help these poor people out, and also get a ghost or two into the lab we could study. That would advance our work so much!”

She was getting excited, Abby could tell, even Holtzmann could tell, despite not having known Erin for long yet; unable to sit still anymore, Erin came to her feet, gesturing in excitement as she went on.

“Just think about it!” she said, eyes shining, her enthusiasm making Holtzmann feel oddly tingly, the engineer barely noticing how she started to smile as well, “if we could capture a ghost and bring it to this lab! It’d be proof to everyone that ghosts are real, we could do some ground-breaking work… Holtzmann, you took a look at our plans for a trap, yes? What do you say?”

“Should work”, Holtzmann told her, earning a bright smile which sent another pleasant tingle up and down her spine, “and I think I have everything I need to build it here. I’ll get on that once I finished the prototype for the proton stream, alright?”

Erin nodded in excitement, nearly bouncing on the spot; and her enthusiasm made Holtzmann eager to finish the first prototype so she could get started on the trap, and she went back to work quickly, not only getting things done, but also distracting herself from how seeing Erin so happy had made her feel and what these feelings might mean in the long run.

* * *

For the rest of this day and the morning of the next, Holtzmann worked on the prototype, deeming it fit for testing after lunch; this made Erin quite excited, her obvious joy, in turn, giving Holtzmann the tingles again, something she tried hard to hide as the prototype was wheeled out into the alley behind the building, an area which was off limits to students and had been chosen as their testing ground.

“It’s too bad there’s no ghost we can test this on”, the engineer said as she took another critical look at what she had built; it looked a bit clunky and might be difficult to move around, but at least, she figured, they’d be able to find out if the proton stream would work, and if it would do so without making the whole device blow up.

Thinking of things blowing up sent a flash of pain through her face and upper body, but she gave her best to ignore it, to not let it show, knowing after years of having dealt with this that it was a mental thing; instead of dwelling on this brief moment of hurt, she focused on the prototype again, Erin and Abby watching her check it one more time, the physicist nearly bouncing on the spot with excitement.

“Okay”, she said at last, even though she still worried a bit – the numbers Erin and Abby had provided her with were flawless and perfect, she knew, but there still might be flaws in her work, it had been quite a while since she had built something as sophisticated as this, and she was all too aware of this, “step back a bit please, just in case this does blow up after all.”

Both Erin and Abby were quite sure that there was no danger of anything blowing up, but did her the favour and took a few steps back; Holtzmann took in a deep breath, then pushed the button which activated the machine, a low hum emitting from it as it powered up.

“Oh, oh!” Abby cried out when it didn’t look as if the machine would do anything it wasn’t supposed to do, “wait a second, I got a target!”

She ran off, leaving Erin and Holtzmann behind alone; the engineer was so focused on the prototype that she barely noticed, even though she did glance up when Erin moved to stand next to her.

“Um”, she let out, but before she could say more, and advise Erin to step back, the physicist placed one hand on her shoulder again, like she had done when they had watched the video, and the words died in Holtzmann’s throat.

_Don’t put too much thought into this_ , she scolded herself, focusing fiercely on the machine, _she’s just being nice. She’s obviously a touchy-feely kind of person. This has no deeper meaning, she’s just being nice, don’t overthink this, and whatever you do, don’t get a crush on her!_

When Erin leaned even closer and rubbed her back a bit in the process, Holtzmann could feel that tingle again, and her heart skipped a beat, and she realized with dismay that she had warned herself about getting a crush too late.

_Way_ too late.


	9. Chapter 9

As it turned out, the prototype did work just fine, a bright stream blasting from the barrel when Holtzmann pushed the trigger button and taking apart the target Abby had brought – a bedsheet ghost painted on a wooden board; Holtzmann still wasn’t all too happy with how clunky and big the prototype was, but she figured that it was a good start, and Erin and Abby both had agreed, Erin hugging her enthusiastically after the test run had been completed.

Now, Holtzmann was back at her home, and the good feelings she’d had after the successful test had pretty much vanished into nothingness; she felt glum now as she sat in front of her laptop, staring at her reflection in the dark screen, all too aware of how she looked, of how bad the scarring was.

_You idiot, you colossal idiot,_ she scolded herself, finally opening a random program so she wouldn’t have to look at herself anymore, _a pretty woman is nice to you a few times and you get a crush on her. You know she’s just being nice, you know she’ll never feel that way for you, so you better get over this quickly. Before she notices and they fire you._

It surprised her a bit how much the thought of getting fired hurt, especially after she had been so reluctant to start working at the lab in the first place; she still wasn’t sure if it had been her best idea to take the job, but so far, she enjoyed the work, and thanks to the reputation the lab apparently had at the institute, people didn’t often show up there, and so, not many people who weren’t Erin and Abby saw her, except for the time they had gone out to the mansion.

She figured that sooner or later, they’d head out to another haunted location, but told herself that she could handle being out and about as long as she wasn’t alone; and she had noticed how protective Erin had been of her when Ed Mulgrave had stared at her, and thinking back to this moment made her heart beat faster again.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket and distracted her from her thoughts, and she pulled the device out to check it; she was a bit surprised to see that Erin had sent a text, as if the physicist had somehow felt her thoughts and had reacted to them.

_Dr Gilbert: Sorry for disturbing you after work, but Abby got the website up and I figured maybe you wanna look at it :-) Have a good evening and see you tomorrow :-)_

She had added the link, but before Holtzmann looked at it, she quickly typed a reply, not wanting to appear rude to the woman who was sort of her new boss, especially not since she had a crush on said woman.

_Thanks_ , she wrote back, unware that Erin sat in her home with her phone in her hands, waiting for her response, _I’ll check it out and let you know tomorrow what I think. You have a good evening too._

She sent the message, then checked the website; Abby had done a good job, she thought to herself, and made a mental note to tell her this in the next day, then pulled up the plans for the prototype she’d used, eager to make some improvements to make the device less clunky and difficult to move, for a while even forgetting about her crush on Erin and about the worries said crush caused her as she got lost in her work once again.

In the next morning, Holtzmann did compliment Abby on the website, as she had been planning to, and the compliment was well-received, Abby beaming at her and thanking her; and then, they all went to work again, Holtzmann trying to improve the proton gun while Erin and Abby were working on calculations to help with that, all three of them worried that the device might be too unwieldy and clunky to be used efficiently in the field.

_Maybe like some sort of backpack,_ Holtzmann thought to herself as she frowned at the machine, _that might work, if I can make sure it won’t explode even if someone falls on it or something…_

Her train of thought got interrupted unexpectedly when a knock came from the door, the way Erin frowned showing that she wasn’t expecting anyone, either; she lowered her tool while Erin called out “yes?”, the door opening a moment later and a tall woman poking her head into the lab, taking it in with a curious expression before she stepped inside fully.

“Hi, hello”, she said, looking a bit nervous, glancing around again as she continued, “did you know that before this building became a university, it was a Gentlemen’s club? No ladies allowed, good thing that changed, huh? Also, I… got chased by a ghost?”

“What”, Abby flatly gave back, while Erin perked up, and Holtzmann gaped, the woman nodding vigorously, giving Erin a thankful look when the physicist offered her a seat.

“I’m Patty Tolan, I work for the MTA”, she let the physicist know while Abby and Holtzmann moved closer to listen, too, “y’all probably can imagine that we get a lot of crazies there, but today I had a special kind of crazy guy. He talked creepy stuff about a fourth cataclysm, then he went on the tracks and when I followed him to stop him, the ghost came at me. I checked on the internet to see who might be able to help with that and found your website, so…”

“You’ve come to the right place”, Erin reassured her, leaning forward in excitement while Holtzmann wondered if the ghost encounter had shocked Patty so much that so far, she hadn’t really noticed her face, since she had barely given her more than a glance when she had entered, not quite the reaction she usually got when people noticed her features, “tell us all about that ghost, in as many details as you can, and then, we’ll go down there and see if we can capture it. Holtz, I think the proton gun is about to get field tested.”

* * *

Holtzmann was huffing and puffing as she pushed the proton gun along on the trolley behind the other three women, the machine even heavier and more unwieldy than she at first had expected; Erin had offered her help, with a concerned look – and possibly also with the fact in mind that Holtzmann had pulled the hood of her sweater down into her face again as far as it would go, and her sight was limited a bit – but Holtzmann had refused, not quite sure what being bounced around like that might do to the machine and not wanting anyone else near it, should it blow up or do something equally unpleasant.

Patty led them into the tunnels, apologizing for the dirt and the smell; and while Abby commented on the urine odour in particular, green goo dripped from the ceiling and landed on Erin’s shoulder, the physicist letting out an annoyed “come on!” when she noticed.

“I should have given y’all some coveralls”, Patty realized, grimacing, “but I don’t even know what that stuff is.”

“I know what it is”, Erin grumbled, picking at the stuff while Holtzmann looked on with a hint of amusement, finding it somewhat funny that it had been Erin again who had gotten hit by the slime, even if it just had been a tiny glob of it, “it’s residue from your ghost, Miss Tolan.”

“Not my ghost”, Patty corrected her, making her smile a bit, then perked up as she realized something, “and hey! This is close to where I saw that weird sparking thing. Before I saw the ghost.”

“What was it?” Holtzmann asked, prompting the taller woman to turn to her, her response making the engineer smirk, along with the fact that once again, there was no visible reaction to her features.

“Baby, if I knew it would it was”, Patty said, “I wouldn’t have called it weird sparking thing. Oh there it is!”

She pointed a clearly destroyed device out to the women, and Abby picked it up, Erin moving to her side and frowning as she commented on how the thing smelled like fission scorch; Abby was sceptical, at first, only to have to admit that Erin was right after taking a good whiff of the device herself.

And then, something else caught Holtzmann’s attention, and her breath got caught in her throat as she looked up and saw the pair of glowing red eyes down the tunnel, not quite surprised, but dismayed when she realized that said eyes were approaching their little group.

“Guys”, she said, making Erin turn and look at her, “look over there!”

They all did, and Erin felt her heart speed up in excitement as the ghost floated closer, became more visible, and let them see his striped suit and the cap he had worn to his death on the electrical chair, an unsettling growl coming from him as he got a good look at the four women.

“Well, Holtz”, Erin said, making the engineer look at her, “I guess it’s time for a real field test of that prototype.”


	10. Chapter 10

It didn’t even take a minute for Holtzmann to realize that she had made a crucial mistake in building the prototype – she’d been planning to use it all on her own, just in case might still explode after all, but with how she had built it, there was no way she could fire the proton gun and use the keyboard needed to activate the stream at the same time, and she never had gotten around to teach Erin and Abby the commands for the machine.

“One of you has to use the laser”, she thus said, trying to hide her dismay about this – she was fairly sure that the device would work just fine, but ever since The Incident which had scarred her, she was reluctant to let anyone else use a device as complicated as the proton gun, even though Dr Gorin had told her countless times that what had happened back then hadn’t been her fault.

“I’ll do it”, Erin said at once, stepping closer to the device, “tell me what to do.”

“Here”, Holtzmann gave back, handing the gun to her, “just put your thumb on this button and when I saw Go, push down. It’s gonna fire a proton stream at the ghost, but if it starts to vibrate or to smell funny or… do anything weird… I don’t know, toss it aside and run, okay?"

“Holtz”, Erin took the chance given to speak when the engineer had to pause for a breath, “it’s going to be fine. I trust you.”

For a few seconds, all Holtzmann could do was look at her, feeling strangely overwhelmed by those few simple words; she had to swallow heavily a few times, then remembered that there was a possibly malevolent ghost nearby and moving closer, and gave a brief nod, then hurried to the keyboard, Patty watching how she began to type while Abby once more pulled the camera from her bag and started to film.

“Alright, alright, almost there”, Holtzmann mumbled as she typed frantically, “alright… Erin, be ready and…Go!”

Erin pushed the button, perhaps a bit harder than strictly necessary, and a stream of bright proton energy shot from the gun; it wrapped around the ghost, and she let out a happy “yes!”, the ghost shrieking and clawing at the stream while Holtzmann typed frantically, in an attempt to keep the power level from dropping back down.

“We have to get him back to the platform!” Abby cried out, even though she wasn’t quite sure what they would do once they’d have the ghost there, since they had no trap yet; they had to get the ghost off the tracks though, and quickly, she realized as a light appeared up ahead in the distance which had nothing to do with any paranormal activity.

“Shit!” she cursed while at the same time, Patty yelled that this was the express train and it wasn’t stopping; trying to keep up the recording, Abby rushed to Erin’s side and grabbed her beneath one armpit, Patty moving to the physicist’s other side and doing the same, and together, they started dragging her along the tracks back to the platform, Holtzmann pushing the proton gun along, the ghost still caught in the stream.

The train honked at them, making her wonder if the conductor was reacting to them or to the fluorescent figure of the ghost; she figured though that in the end, it didn’t make much of a difference – because they weren’t fast enough, not with Erin holding the heavy proton gun and said gun being attached to the even heavier device.

“Drop the gun!” Holtzmann shouted as they got closer to the platform, and Erin shot her a look which practically screamed “are you insane?”; the train clearly wasn’t slowing down though, and Holtzmann felt her heart race in her chest, her palms growing sweaty as she abandoned the machine and ran to the other three.

“Drop the gun now!” she shouted again, the train’s honking terribly loud, almost drowning out her voice; and just when she thought that she’d have to yank the gun out of Erin’s hands, the physicist finally complied, heaving the gun away from herself and onto the tracks, and not a second too late, as the train rushed past them a few moments later, hitting at first the prototype and then the ghost on the way, ectoplasm splattering from the apparition at the collision and raining down on both Erin and Holtzmann, Abby and Patty having ducked down in the last moment.

“Augh”, Holtzmann let out, glad that her hood had protected most of her face and hair from the goo, but still she could feel it trickle down her cheeks, cold and slimy, and slide inside her hoodie, “this is disgusting. Ew! Ewww!”

“I know how you feel”, Erin told her, giving Abby a brief thankful glance when the researcher helped her with getting the slime out of her eyes, “and not to make you feel worse, but this will take forever to wash off. Just be glad none got into your hair.”

“And the ghost is gone, too”, Patty added, looking down the tunnel, the train by now gone from sight, “guess he’s going to Queens. He’ll be the third scariest thing on that train.”

At this, the other three women laughed, the tension of the last minutes falling off of them; Patty beamed at them, but Holtzmann barely noticed, her mind already running wild as she looked at the sad remains of the prototype and thought of new, better ways to build the next version, one which would make them more mobile and would perhaps give them more energy, as well, the engineer suddenly just knowing what she had to do.

* * *

The moment they were back at the lab, Holtzmann got to work, and by the time Erin and Abby had unpacked the device they had found in the subway once they were sure the ghost was gone, she was so lost in her work that she barely registered what they were talking about.

“This looks like it was a miniature cyclotron before it blew up”, Erin said as she studied the device, then poked it with her pen, as if she expected it to blow up again, unlikely as that was, “do we know if one like those was at the mansion? I have a hunch.”

“No idea”, Abby had to admit, “if there was one, we didn’t see it. Think we can get back in there and take a look?”

“Perhaps”, Erin gave back, with another critical look at the device, “because this thing certainly doesn’t belong in the subway. And if someone put it there, and then that ghost shows up… The lady from the subway did say that she saw a guy go onto the tracks before the ghost appeared.”

Abby nodded, figuring that Erin was onto something – her best friend had had such hunches before, after all, and they usually turned out to be correct, so she saw no reason to be sceptical.

“I’ll call that Mulgrave guy”, she thus said, making Erin nod, “and ask him if we can get access to the mansion one more time.”

She hurried off to do just that, and while she was busy with that, Erin went to where Holtzmann was working, the engineer so absorbed by her task that she didn’t even notice the physicist, until Erin cleared her throat.

“Sorry for disturbing you”, she said once Holtzmann had looked up at her, smiling at her, unaware of the flash of heat this smile sent up and down the engineer’s spine, “I just wanted to say… Abby and I, we were both very impressed with how well the prototype worked. I’m sorry it got destroyed.”

“You might have gotten hurt”, Holtzmann mumbled in response, suddenly finding it hard to look Erin in the eye again, to the physicist’s slight surprise and concern, “the machine can be rebuilt. I’ll even make it better. But if you’d gotten hurt… Well, I can’t rebuild you.”

“Good point”, Erin said, not sure what else to respond; Holtzmann’s eyes flickered up to meet hers, just for a second, then she cleared her throat and made a vague gesture at what she had been working on, Erin not quite able to figure out what it would end up being, with a just a rectangular sort of shell and a bunch of wires protruding from it done so far.

“I, um, I should get back to that”, Holtzmann said, and Erin nodded; and once again, she reached out and briefly touched the other woman’s shoulder before she went back to her desk, feeling Holtzmann’s eyes on her back, but not turning to look at her, smiling to herself as she thought of the tingling feeling the brief physical contact had sent racing up her arm.


	11. Chapter 11

In the next day, Erin and Abby headed out to the mansion while Holtzmann stayed behind, claiming that she wanted to do more work on the next version of the proton gun, and while she felt a bit weird all alone in the lab once the two had left, she quickly got lost in her work again, barely noticing how the hours ticked by as she soldered and connected wires and built.

And so, it seemed as if barely any time had passed when the door to the lab opened and Erin and Abby came back; they both were a bit miffed, with the second visit to the mansion not having yielded anything new – if there had been a device like the one they had found at the subway, it had been removed since they had been to the mansion, even though Ed Mulgrave had reassured them that no one had been in the building since the three women had encountered the ghost. 

“Guess someone who sneaks onto subway tracks has no troubles with breaking into a historic mansion, either”, Erin sighed once Holtzmann had been told that the visit had been pretty much for nothing, “if there really was one of those devices there.”

“Pretty sure there was”, Abby told her, making her smile a bit, “it’s just too much of a coincidence otherwise, two such strong ghosts within days from each other? Someone’s helping them along, like you said. Amplifying them, making them stronger… but for what?”

“What did Miss Tolan say?” Erin pondered, Holtzmann having stopped her work for the moment to listen, “about what that guy said to her? Something about a cataclysm?”

As if on cue, there was a knock from the door, giving them all pause before Erin called out “yes?”, all three women feeling a bit surreal when the door opened and Patty poked her head into the room, as if talking about her had somehow summoned her.

“Okay, this is freaky”, Abby was the one to say it out loud, earning a confused look from Patty which prompted her to elaborate, “we were just talking about you and your creepy subway guy, trying to remember what he said to you. And now, here you are.”

“Here I am”, Patty said, beaming now, “and he was talking about the fourth cataclysm. Now that sounds like a franchise nobody wants, right? I’d like to join your club.”

That came a bit out of nowhere, and so, for a few moments, all Erin, Abby and Holtzmann could do was blink at the woman; she smiled brightly at them as she stepped into the lab and closed the door behind herself, speaking on when none of the other three said something, all of them still somewhat stunned at this unexpected and quite blunt revelation.

“I looked up a lot of stuff since you guys helped me out at the subway”, she let them know, “there’s been more ghost sightings, all over New York City. People got hurt, perhaps are still getting hurt, and I want to help you guys with taking care of this, because your group is the only serious one looking into this I could find. And I might not know much about all the physicist and engineering stuff you do here, but I know New York and its history, and anyway, four people are better for this than three, because what if there’s a ghost in a big location and you have to split up? One of you would have to go alone.”

“Good points, all of those”, Erin said after thinking about this for a moment, earning another bright smile from the taller woman, “also, you probably have more people skills than the three of us combined, no offense Holtz and Abby.”

“I have people skills”, Abby protested, while Holtzmann just smirked, clearly not offended, earning a raised eyebrow from Erin – before the physicist pointed out that they had gotten funding for hiring Holtzmann not because the dean believed in their work, but because he was scared of Abby, Abby harrumphing as she realized she had no answer to that good point.

“Okay”, Erin said once that had been settled, turning to look at Patty again and giving her a bright smile, “you’re in. I’m not sure we can pay you much, for now, but maybe we can get some extra funding, I’m sure Abby can frighten the dean into coughing up a bit more.”

“Making use of those people skills, huh”, Patty said, earning a snort from Erin while Holtzmann smirked again and Abby just huffed; and just like that, their team had gained a fourth member, and they decided to celebrate this by ordering a late lunch, Holtzmann making sure that nothing was in danger of blowing up or melting down before she moved to join the others at the table, ending up sitting next to Erin, Patty taking note of how the physicist’s eyes lit up when she smiled at the engineer.

She wondered if Holtzmann herself was aware of this, having noticed the same thing during their adventure on the subway tracks; she knew better though than to simply say something out loud, with everyone there at the table, and kept her observations to herself, instead asking what had been on her mind ever since she had found the website of the women and had come to them for help.

“So”, she said instead of inquiring about the way Erin was looking at Holtzmann and vice versa, “how did y’all get into ghost hunting?”

“When I was eight, the mean old lady next door died”, Erin let her know, earning a wide-eyed look, “and her ghost appeared at the foot of my bed the night after the funeral. She’d stare at me for a while, then unhinge her jaw – pretty much like the ghost of Gertrude Aldridge in the video from the mansion – and puke blood all over my bed and me. She did that every night for a year.”

“Holy crap”, Patty let out, not wanting to imagine how frightening this must have been for an eight year old, thinking about how she’d be freaked out if that happened to her and it had been many years since she’d been eight, “that’s awful. And no one could help you?”

“Well, my parents didn’t believe me when I told them”, Erin said, and this was a part of her story Holtzmann hadn’t heard before, either, the engineer watching her closely now as she spoke and quickly realizing that the physicist wasn’t taking this easy as she pretended, “probably still don’t. I had to go to therapy for quite a while, then of course the other kids at school found out, started calling me Ghost Girl... Lucky for me, Abby transferred to my school when we both were twelve, and she believed me.”

All Holtzmann wanted was to reach out and hug her, especially when she realized that Erin had dealt with the other kids laughing at her and bullying her for four years, all on her own, before Abby had transferred to her school; and even then, Holtzmann figured, she certainly hadn’t had it easy, with one friend against what might have been a whole army of bullies.

She fought the urge though, telling herself that it might not be appropriate with Abby and Patty right there; and Erin was smiling, not appearing all too troubled by the recollection, and so, Holtzmann told herself that it had been a long time ago and that Erin seemed quite well-adjusted nowadays and probably didn’t even need a hug.

And just then, a knock came from the door, signalling that their food had arrived; and when Abby got up from her seat to get the pizzas and Patty walked with her to help her, Holtzmann noticed the flash of sadness on Erin’s face, so brief that she almost missed it, her heart clenching up as she realized that perhaps, she could need a hug after all.

Still she didn’t dare to just hug her out of nowhere, and opted for a comforting hand on the other woman’s shoulder instead; and at the tender touch, Erin looked at her and smiled again as their eyes met, Holtzmann smiling back at her, heat coursing through her at how Erin held her gaze, once more making it hard for her to ignore the crush she had developed on the older woman.


	12. Chapter 12

“Everyone”, Holtzmann said quite a while later, shortly before their work day would come to an end, “come take a look at what I’ve cooked up over here. I think you’ll like it.”

Curious, the three other women moved to join her at her workbench, Erin raising an eyebrow in appreciation at the device which laid there; Holtzmann gave her a brief, shy smile, then started explaining what she had built, how she had built it and how it would work, sounding more and more self-confident the longer she spoke, clearly proud of the work she had done.

“And top it all off”, she finished her little presentation, grinning now, “a freakin’ Faraday cage. Now we’ll be more mobile, it has more power, and it can be worn like a backpack! A proton backpack. A proton pack!”

“Holtz, this is amazing”, Erin told her, the engineer’s smile widening in response, “very impressive! You made all that just in one day?”

“I was motivated”, Holtzmann replied with a small shrug, earning a smile from Erin while Abby was taking a closer look at the proton pack, as impressed as Erin was, “and I’ll have to make three more, once we tested this one. Speaking of testing, you ladies want to head out to the alley with me and give this a try?”

“Yes, definitely”, Erin said at once, even though she already knew that Holtzmann would be the one to do the actual test and that they’d only get to watch, with the engineer’s worries that her work might blow up and injure someone, “come on, let’s go! Abby, you got another one of those targets?”

Abby nodded and went to get it, while Holtzmann hoisted the proton pack onto her back and led the way to the alley; and once there, she waited for Abby to put the target up, raising an eyebrow when Erin suddenly stood behind her and put a bicycle helmet onto her head, the physicist shrugging at the look the engineer gave her.

“Safety first”, she then simply said, earning a snort from Holtzmann which made her smile widen; then, she stepped back, giving the blonde some room, and Holtzmann took in a deep breath as she pushed the button which powered the pack up, relaxing a bit when a low hum started to emit from it, and no sparks or even smoke made an appearance.

“Okay”, she said, speaking up a bit to make sure the other could hear her over the hum, “here goes nothing.”

She moved her thumb onto the trigger button and, after a deep breath, pushed down; and a second later, as a bright proton stream shot from the barrel, the ground was gone from beneath her feet as the kickback was much stronger than she had anticipated, strong enough to actually send her flying a few feet before she regained her wits and let go of the trigger, a low “ooff!” coming from her when she hit the ground.

“Holtz!” she heard Erin call out, followed by rapid footsteps approaching her, the physicist bending over her moments later, eyes wide and full of worry, “oh my God, are you okay?”

“Fine”, Holtzmann reassured her, sitting up, touched by how Erin started fussing over her, Abby and Patty right behind the physicist, looking her over to make sure she really hadn’t gotten hurt, “good thing you put that helmet on me. And I guess I have to make some adjustments.”

“Good thing indeed”, Erin said as she helped Holtzmann to her feet, looking her over once more to make sure she was okay – she hadn’t seen her actually hit her head, and there was no obvious damage done to her body, but still Erin couldn’t help being worried, keeping one hand on the other woman’s arm even once Holtzmann was standing up right again, “and you’re sure you’re okay? No pain anywhere?”

“Well, for future reference, avoid falling on the packs, cause that’s ouchie on the back”, Holtzmann gave back, grimacing a bit, “but nothing serious, no. I underestimated the kickback, but I learned my lesson now.”

Erin gave her another critical look, but finally nodded, figuring that Holtzmann would tell her if she really had gotten hurt; and so, instead of asking again if the engineer truly was alright, she helped her to take the pack off, then led the way back inside the lab, the brief moment of fright forgotten as she thought of the bright stream which had shot from the pack’s proton gun, suddenly just sure that quite soon, they each would have a working proton pack and would finally be able to capture a ghost.

* * *

Quite a while later, Abby and Patty had left the lab for the day, and Erin was getting ready to go home, too; Holtzmann apparently had no such plans though, working on the second proton pack now that she had made adjustments to the first one, brow furrowed in concentration as she peered at the smaller parts through her yellow-tinted goggles.

“Holtz?” Erin said as she finished packing up and moved to the engineer’s workbench, “you gonna stay here or you want to share a cab? We can’t pay you all that overtime, you know, Abby didn’t scare that much extra funding out of the dean.”

“That’s okay”, Holtzmann mumbled, somewhat absent-minded, “I won’t write that time up, I just want to get this done before I leave.”

Curious to see how far she had progressed on the second pack, and how the insides of said pack looked, Erin moved closer, ending up right next to her, the sudden closeness making Holtzmann pause for a moment; and this time, Erin noticed, having a second to wonder if she was making Holtzmann uncomfortable – before she took note of how the engineer swallowed heavily, and of the faint blush which coloured her cheek, and her heart skipped an excited beat as she realized what this might mean.

_Perhaps my crush isn’t quite as one-sided after all,_ Erin thought to herself, starting to feel excited; and before she could stop herself, she spoke up, making the engineer look up from her work this time, her hands stilling as she listened to the physicist.

“You know, this is very impressive, as I said”, Erin let the younger woman know, “and I’m really glad we hired you to do this for us. But… your undeniable brilliance isn’t the only reason I’m glad. I really like you, Holtz.”

Holtzmann blinked, clearly not having expected this, and not having an idea how to react to this; and so, Erin decided that actions would speak louder than words, and before she could overthink this and stop herself, she leaned down and kissed the blonde, Holtzmann’s lips surprisingly soft against her own, tasting of something minty and something scorched, an odd mixture the engineer somehow made work.

The kiss lasted for a few seconds, and Erin could feel her heart pick up speed and her palms grow sweaty – and then, Holtzmann not just pulled back, but flinched back, her eyes wide, but before Erin had the chance to say something, perhaps apologize for acting so rashly, the engineer practically bolted from her seat and out of the lab, the physicist staring after her for a few seconds, stunned.

“Holtzmann!” she then cried out as the sound of a door slamming down the hallway snapped her out of her stupor, “Holtz, wait!”

Quickly, but still mindful of her high heels, she hurried after the blonde, trying hard to ignore her pain at the rejection for now, telling herself that she had to make this right and that the most important thing for now was to make sure her rash actions hadn’t just cost the team its brilliant engineer.


	13. Chapter 13

To Erin’s dismay, Holtzmann had rushed right outside of the building, and of course, she thought to herself, it had to be raining; she wondered when that had started, after all, the weather had been pleasant during the proton pack test, but then, that had been hours ago, and just then Erin realized that the weather should be the last thing on her mind now.

Frantically, she looked left and right, trying to spot Holtzmann, trying to figure out where she had gone; and just when she felt her heart sink, her gaze fell on a figure to her right, wearing a grey hoodie she recognized even from behind, the hood up, but Erin knew that it wasn’t just to keep the rain off her hair and face.

“Holtzmann!” she called out, hurrying after the engineer, who either hadn’t heard her or was pretending not to, her head bent low as she briskly walked down the sidewalk, hiding her features further from view, “Holtz, wait, I’m sorry!”

Forgetting all about the dangers of running with high heels, Erin jogged after her, glad when she managed to catch up to her; she reached out and grasped Holtzmann’s arm, not too tight, but still tight enough to make her stop, and she was startled when the engineer turned to face her and she could see the tears glistening in the other woman’s eyes.

“Holtzmann, I’m sorry”, she said, desperate to make this right, shocked and hurt by this bad reaction, “I didn’t mean to… I thought…”

“I can’t do this”, Holtzmann interrupted her, an audible tremble in her voice which made Erin’s heart clench up, “I can’t do this to you Erin, I can’t…”

This left Erin somewhat stumped, since she had been the one to kiss Holtzmann, and not the other way round, and still Holtzmann made it sound now as if she’d assaulted her or something, not as if Erin had kissed her pretty much without warning.

“Do what?” she asked, a bit dumbfounded, but not sure what else to say, her heart cramping up painfully again when in response, the engineer vaguely gestured at her face, sounding as if she was losing the fight against her tears when she replied.

“This”, she told her hoarsely, part of her taking note of how Erin was still holding her arm, “people whisper and stare, all the time, alright? And I can’t even blame them. Do you know why I have no PhD? Cause I couldn’t take it anymore at the lab, so I dropped out. And I can’t do this to you, cause they’d stare at you too, and whisper about you, when you’re with me, and… and you don’t need to do this because you pity me, or feel like you have to, I don’t need you to do this, okay? I don’t need you to—”

“Holtz”, Erin interrupted her, hurt by the implication that she only had kissed Holtzmann out of some weird sense of pity, “you don’t really think I kissed you because I pity you, do you? And I don’t care if people whisper and stare! Let them, if it makes them feel better, you’re brilliant and kind and I meant it when I said I really like you, so who cares what other people think?! So if this is why you’re freaked out, and not because you don’t like me that way, just… just give this a chance. Give _me_ a chance. Please?”

For a few seconds, Holtzmann just stared at her, as if she could read her mind and figure out if her words were honest by just looking hard enough; and then, just when Erin feared that she would have to say more to make this better, the engineer suddenly stepped closer to her, grasped the lapels of her coat with both hands, pulled her down, and kissed her.

This second kiss was far from as chaste and innocent as the first one had been, Holtzmann kissing her with much more fervour and need, igniting a fire deep within Erin’s core which made her forget all about the rain and the cold as she kissed the younger woman back; she barely noticed how she put both arms around the engineer and pulled her even closer, until they were pressed against each other, neither of them caring about or even noticing the people who had detour around them on the sidewalk.

She felt Holtzmann’s hands move from her lapels, sliding to her back and coming to a rest there, and still the kiss went on; and by the time they finally had to pull apart again, she was flushed and breathing heavily, her heart racing in her chest, and she could easily tell that it wasn’t much different for Holtzmann, the engineer even looking somewhat dazed as she peered up at her.

“We’re getting all wet”, Erin was the one to break the not uncomfortable silence between them, perhaps not the smartest thing to say, but the first thing which came to her kiss-addled mind, her next words making Holtzmann blush again, “and not the good kind. My place is not far from here, do you want to…?”

“Um?” Holtzmann let out, making Erin realize a bit belatedly how easily her words could be misunderstood, “that’s… quite forward of you?”

“No no no”, Erin quickly gave back, her flush now not caused by arousal anymore, “not like that! Just… to get dry, you know. And okay, maybe kiss a bit more, cause that was really nice…”

“Agreed”, Holtzmann mumbled, blushing a bit again, as well, “it really was really nice. I wouldn’t mind some more of that.”

The physicist gave her a bright smile, happy that things had worked out this way, after the engineer’s dramatic exit; and when she reached out and took Holtzmann’s hand, and felt the other woman’s fingers curl around hers, she only felt happier, unable to stop smiling as they got moving, heading off to her home.

* * *

“Here”, Erin said a short while later, handing Holtzmann one of her sweaters and a pair of jogging pants, the engineer’s clothes quite wet from her walk in the rain, “the pants might be a bit long for you, but I imagine it’s better than keeping on your wet ones. I’ll make us some tea if you like?”

Holtzmann nodded, glad that this gave her a bit of time she’d use to change into the dry clothes; and so, when Erin came back, Holtzmann was wearing the sweater and pants she had provided her with, sitting on the couch a bit awkwardly, even though she relaxed slightly when Erin smiled at her and put a cup of tea down on the table in front of her.

“I hope you like chamomile”, she then said as she got comfortable next to the blonde, “it’s the only tea I had. I can get you something else if you don’t like it.”

“Nah, it’s fine”, Holtzmann reassured her, even though she wasn’t a big fan of chamomile tea, but she didn’t want to be rude and perhaps limit her chances to get more Erin kisses, “thank you. Um, for the tea and for the clothes.”

“No problem”, Erin reassured her, earning a brief, shy smile; she smiled back at the blonde much brighter, then put her own mug onto the table – before she turned on the couch so she was facing Holtzmann, a bit nervous when she spoke up again, but not stopping herself, her need to kiss the engineer again outweighing her nervousness.

“So”, she said, making Holtzmann look at her questioningly, “I believe there was talk of more kissing?”

“Uh-huh”, Holtzmann let out, earning another bright smile – before Erin leaned in and kissed her again, the tea forgotten a short while later, getting cold on the table as they were focused fully on each other.


	14. Chapter 14

By the time they had to leave in the next morning, Holtzmann’s clothes had dried, and during the trip to the lab, she had time to hope that Erin and she would be the first to arrive, not quite sure how Abby and Patty might react to this new development – she didn’t think that they’d have anything against the idea of the two of them as a couple, but still she couldn’t help herself, but just had to worry.

All Erin and she had done the previous evening had been kissing and cuddling on the couch, no clothes coming off until Erin had gone to bed and had changed into her pyjamas; and Holtzmann had slept on the couch, not having wanted to appear too forward by trying to join Erin in her bed, something the physicist apparently had been aware of, since she hadn’t tried to talk her into sharing said bed with her, either.

Apparently though, she had no luck this morning, since Abby was already there when Erin and she arrived at the lab; the researcher raised an eyebrow at the two of them entering together, then smirked as she took a closer look and saw the way they were holding hands, not really surprised, having expected this to happen sooner or later.

Holtzmann felt her face heat up, and cursed herself as she realized that she was blushing; Erin just smiled back at Abby innocently, and the researcher raised an eyebrow, then shook her head, the smirk coming back though as she spoke up, showing that her words were meant as friendly teasing and not a harsh critique.

“Don’t give me that look, Erin”, she told her best friend, “I didn’t buy it when you were looking at Holtz with heart-eyes and I’m not buying it now.”

“You were looking at me with heart-eyes?” Holtzmann wanted to know, giving Erin a look both surprised and curious; the physicist blushed a bit, then smiled and nodded, figuring she might as well admit it.

“I did”, she let the engineer know, earning another look of surprise, “and apparently, Abby noticed.”

“It was hard not to notice”, Abby told her, “I bet even Patty noticed, and she’s only been working with us for a short while. I’m gonna ask her when she comes in.”

“Gonna ask me what?” Patty asked as she entered the lab just then; Erin raised an eyebrow at how well timed this was, then shrugged it off, while Abby told Patty about the heart-eyes and asked she if had noticed them, as well.

“Oh, definitely”, she said at once, making Holtzmann blush again, “honestly, a few times, I was surprised Erin didn’t pounce you right at your workbench, Holtzy. Especially whenever you explained your work.”

“I can’t help it that I find intelligence very attractive”, Erin defended herself, while Holtzmann cleared her throat, wondering why everyone but her had seen this, what with her being the recipient of said heart-eyes – before she belatedly realized why, and found herself briefly amazed at the fact that she had forgotten all about her face for a second there and hadn’t realized that, just a day ago, she never would have thought someone like Erin would look that way at someone like her.

_No surprise you didn’t notice,_ she thought to herself, while Abby and Patty teased Erin some more about her heart-eyes, the physicist responding by tossing paper clips at them, clearly in a good mood after the previous evening, _yesterday evening, you didn’t even believe she meant it when she_ kissed _you, of course heart-eyes would go unnoticed._

“Well, for what it’s worth”, Patty’s voice distracted her from her thoughts, as the historian suddenly sounded quite serious, signalling that the teasing apparently was over, “I think you’ll be good for each other. The two of you make a cute couple. Just don’t do any nasty sex shit in the lab, you hear?”

“Oh my God”, Holtzmann squeaked at this, making Patty snicker while Abby grinned and even Erin smirked; at seeing the smirk on the physicist’s face, Holtzmann pouted, prompting Erin to let out an adorable “awwww” sound as she moved to put her arms around the engineer.

And as she returned the embrace, and felt Erin rub her back a bit, Holtzmann realized that, for the first time since the incident which had scarred her had happened, she was truly and completely happy.

* * *

During the rest of the day, Holtzmann was pretty sure that her feet were floating a few inches above the ground and that she wasn’t actually walking; she had known that Erin was a touchy-feely person, but apparently, officially dating the engineer had only increased this, as the physicist touched her whenever she walked past her, sometimes briefly touching her back, other times rubbing her shoulder or arm, and every now and then, she’d stop for a brief, but tender kiss, unfazed by how Abby and Patty would tease whenever they’d “lock lips” like that, as Abby put it.

It was quite possible, she thought to herself as she worked, that this change in her life not only was making her feet float above the floor – figuratively – but literally made her work faster; her fingers seemed to have found new dexterity and endurance, and she finished two more proton packs until it was time to head home.

“You wanna head to my place again?” Erin suggested as they all started to pack up, once Holtzmann had made sure nothing would blow up over night, “we can have dinner if you like?”

“Sounds good”, Holtzmann agreed, only to blush again when Abby wolf-whistled; Erin gave her best friend a _look_ , then said that they’d see Patty and her tomorrow, ignoring how Abby wiggled her eyebrows when she grasped Holtzmann’s hand and they headed towards the exit together.

Thanks to Abby’s somewhat blunt reaction, Holtzmann felt quite nervous by the time they arrived at Erin’s place; she knew that sooner or later, Erin would want to get more intimate with her, do more than kissing and cuddling, and the thought only made her more nervous as she could envision quite a few reactions Erin might have to seeing her naked, and none of them positive.

If Erin noticed that she was nervous – and Holtzmann figured that she did, the physicist capable of reading her quite well at this point – she didn’t comment on it, to her relief; instead, she simply asked Holtzmann what she wanted for dinner, and once that had been ordered, they moved to the couch again, where they quickly ended up making out again, something Holtzmann enjoyed immensely despite her nervousness.

Despite how much she liked this though, she was somewhat relieved when the doorbell rang, signalling that the food had arrived; Erin looked a bit disappointed when this meant that they had to stop smooching for a while, went to get the food though, Holtzmann feeling a bit calmer by the time she came back.

They had dinner together, then Holtzmann suggested more snuggles, quite enjoying this and the making out she knew it would lead to; and just as she had hoped, it did, the couple soon kissing passionately again, her arms around Erin’s while one of the physicist’s hands was entangled in her hair and the other rested on her lower back.

Then, just as she started to relax fully and forgot now nervous she’d been, she felt Erin’s hand slide beneath her shirt, only at her lower back where it was still safe, but still it made her pull back at once, an audible tremble in her voice when she, just a bit too loud and stilted, exclaimed that she had to go to the bathroom.

“Um, okay”, Erin gave back, a bit taken aback by a moment – before she realized what she had been doing, and nearly smacked herself while Holtzmann rushed to the bathroom, feeling bad for pushing like this, when she should have known that the engineer wouldn’t be comfortable with this, not yet, not after how she had reacted to being kissed the previous evening.

And so, not wanting to freak the younger woman out even more, she told herself to keep her hands to herself, or at least above Holtzmann’s shirt, for the time being; she took in a few deep breaths to regain her self-control, and by the time Holtzmann came back, looking calmer, as well, even managing a shy smile at the happy bright one Erin gave her upon her return.

“All better?” she then asked, and they both knew that she wasn’t just talking about nature’s call; Holtzmann’s smile widened a bit in response as she nodded, then sat down next to Erin again, and not long afterwards, they were making out once more, the physicist making sure this time to keep her hands above the other woman’s clothing, part of her mind racing though as she tried to figure out how to make Holtzmann realize that, no matter how bad the engineer might think it was, she wouldn’t be put off, wouldn’t care the slightest.


	15. Chapter 15

During the next day, Holtzmann finished the remaining two proton packs, then started working on the trap, still with the same heightened energy and enthusiasm the other three women had witnessed the previous day; she got so absorbed in the work that Erin had to remind her to actually eat and drink, the physicist making sure that she got enough to drink especially by poking a straw between her lips every now and then, and feeding her Pringles whenever she walked past her as she did her own work.

“How do you know I like those”, Holtzmann wanted to know when she snapped out of her work for long enough to actually realize what Erin was feeding her; smiling, the physicist shrugged, then held another Pringle out to her, her smile widening when Holtzmann ate it willingly enough.

“You keep a can of those in your desk”, Erin then pointed out, “so it was kinda a given? I can get you something else if you like, the vending machine is surprisingly well stocked here.”

“No way, Pringles are perfect”, Holtzmann let her know; Erin couldn’t quite agree to that, never having been all too fond of that particular snack, but didn’t bother to point that out, instead feeding the engineer another chip, then moving back to her own desk, focusing on her own work, and even getting quite a bit done – until a familiar tune started playing from the radio, and she noticed movement from the corner of her eye, looking up curiously.

A moment later, her calculations and equations were forgotten as all Erin could do was sit there and watch, feeling a familiar tingle below her waist – because at her workbench, unaware of Erin watching her, Holtzmann was dancing, hips swaying to the music while she twirled the screwdriver like it was a baton, humming along to the music, once more missing the fact that the physicist was watching her with what Abby had described as heart-eyes.

Clearly, the engineer was getting more and more into it, now even using the screwdriver to the rhythm, to the amusement of Abby and Patty, while Erin only felt more endeared; they all remained quiet though, not wanting to snap Holtzmann out of the moment, all of them aware of how self-conscious she normally was, Erin only daring to move again when the song ended and Holtzmann stopped dancing, blushing a bit when she noticed that the other three were watching her.

Then, Erin got up from her seat and marched over to where Holtzmann was standing, a determined look on her face; the engineer had a moment to give her a questioning look – before Erin pulled her closer, not caring that they weren’t alone in the lab, and kissed her, not as deeply and passionately as she could have, but with enough fervour to make Abby whistle again while Patty shook her head in amusement.

“Now, now, ladies”, the historian called out when the kiss had been going on a bit longer than probably was proper for the workplace, “remember, we’re at work.”

As if to underline her words, the phone started ringing while Holtzmann and Erin pulled apart again, the engineer’s blush deepening; Abby snickered as she moved to the phone, cleared her throat before she took the call though, so she’d sound professional and not as if they were goofing around at their lab.

“Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination, Dr Yates speaking”, she said, then just listened while Patty leaned closer to Holtzmann and whispered “that is a long-ass name”, making the engineer grin and nod, Erin giving them both a strict look, but before she could scold them for making fun of the name Abby and she had come up with, Abby told whoever was calling that they would be right there and ended the call.

“That was the Stonebrook Theatre”, she let the other women know, an excited glint in her eyes, “there’s a ghost on the loose there. Holtz? The trap?”

“…ready”, Holtzmann said after a moment, not quite happy that they hadn’t been able to test it so far, but figuring that capturing the ghost had to be done, and they had no other option than the trap, “at least I hope so. Maybe make sure none of you are too close to it when I toss it out.”

Erin briefly touched her back in response to that, silently reassuring her once more that she trusted her and that it would be okay; and then, Patty distracted them all by telling them that she had snatched some coveralls from the MTA, just in case there would be slime again.

“And there probably will be”, Abby said while Patty hurried to get them from her locker, then handed them out to the others, “maybe this time, we can get a few samples, too, Erin washed it all off the last times she got slimed.”

“First, it was two times, you make it sound as if I got slimed a dozen times”, Erin pointed out, “and second, oh yeah, how dare I wash that stuff off as fast as possible. It’s gross, Abby, you’ll know how I felt when you’ll get slimed.”

Abby shrugged off her protest, and quickly pulled on the coveralls; the others did the same, then each grabbed a proton pack, Holtzmann strapping the trap to the bottom of hers before the four of them hurried out, eager to get to the venue and take care of the ghost before someone could get hurt.

* * *

The bust went very well, even though it ended much more public than planned, with the ghost ending up getting trapped right on the stage, to the evident confusion of the band which had been playing when the four women had arrived; once the ghost had been sucked into the perfectly functional trap though, the band went back to playing, and the audience cheered, making them wonder if they thought that all of the action had been part of the show, down to a frightful moment when the ghost had been sitting on Patty’s shoulders.

Once the excitement of the bust had worn off, Holtzmann belatedly realized that she was standing on stage in front of a whole mass of people, and nearly stepped back to hide behind Erin; if anyone had any thoughts about her looks though, they kept them to themselves, or didn’t say them loud enough for her to hear, and she allowed herself to relax.

This didn’t last long though, since press people were waiting outside, taking pictures and yelling questions; feeling quite uncomfortable, Holtzmann moved to hide behind Erin, glad that the physicist was more than willing to fend off the reporters, telling them that they had an actual ghost in the trap Holtzmann was holding, and that they had to get said ghost back to the lab, where it would be studied.

“A proper paper on this will be released by our team soon”, she added, moving through the crowd, glad when they made room and didn’t try to stop them, “published by the Conductors of the meta—”

“Ghostbusters!” someone yelled in the crowd, and prompted them all to start chanting “Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters!”; momentarily, Erin wasn’t all too fond of how some random metalhead had just changed their name, then shrugged it off and just smiled, still high on adrenaline after chasing and trapping the ghost, unable to stop smiling as they moved past the crowd and to the car, ready to get back to their lab.


	16. Chapter 16

“We have to come up with some sort of containment unit”, Holtzmann said as Erin and she left the lab and headed home, to her house this time since she was running out of clean clothes at the lab, “cause while that trap should keep the ghost locked up, there’s no room for more than one in there. Or, well, there might be, I’m really not sure, but I’m even less sure what might happen if we lock another one up in there, and I really don’t want to find out the hard way.”

“Me neither”, Erin agreed, grimacing a bit at the thought, “they might just end up powering each other up, or merging, or something equally unpleasant. Abby and I will get onto a containment unit first thing tomorrow, it should work like an enlarged trap, right? And we got the calculations for that all worked out.”

“Yeah, enlarged trap sounds good”, Holtzmann agreed, already thinking about possible designs and how to make them safe, “maybe a bit sturdier, and figure out a way to keep the ghosts separated inside…”

Erin nodded, smiling at the excitement in the engineer’s voice; they hadn’t been dating for long, she thought to herself, but she felt as if she’d never get tired of seeing the blonde so excited about their work, reminded of the enthusiasm Holtzmann had displayed when she had built the proton packs.

That, in turn, made her think of how the engineer had danced earlier that day, of how comfortable and relaxed Holtzmann had seemed, for the first time since Erin had known her appearing fully at ease with herself and with the people around her; and it made her think of how seeing Holtzmann dance had made her feel, of that certain tingle she hadn’t felt in quite a while.

She thought back to when Holtzmann and she had made out on her couch the last time, how Holtzmann had pretty much bolted when Erin had tried to make a move; she wondered if Holtzmann might be more relaxed in her own home, and if she could dare to try again, suddenly quite eager to go further with the blonde than making out and cuddling.

_Don’t try to be pushy,_ she cautioned herself as they stopped to pick up dinner, giving the man behind a counter a glare when he looked at Holtzmann just a bit too long, even though the engineer herself didn’t seem to notice, _yes, you want to get laid, but if she needs more time, she needs more time. I really want to get laid though…_

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment, Erin told herself that patience was a virtue, and tried to ignore the tingles in her lower regions as she walked to Holtzmann’s home with her; and once there, they got comfortable in the engineer’s living room, Erin smiling to herself as she thought back to her first visit at this place.

“What’s funny?” Holtzmann wanted to know as she moved the food from the containers onto two plates; as she helped the younger woman carry the food to the table, Erin shrugged, then smiled again as they sat down to eat.

“I just thought back to when I was here for the first time”, she let Holtzmann know, “you know, when I just showed up out of the blue.”

“That was a bit freaky, you know”, Holtzmann said with a small laugh, smirking when Erin blushed slightly in response, “I was like, oh my God, who does that, just showing up like that without even calling first.”

“You never gave us your phone number”, Erin defended herself, only roll her eyes when in response, Holtzmann told her she was in the phone book, making the blonde snicker with her response to that argument. “Who uses the phone book nowadays? We don’t even have one at the lab.”

“Well, anyway”, Holtzmann gave back, blushing a bit as she suddenly focused hard on her food, finding it difficult to look Erin in the eye, “I was freaked out at first when you just showed up but… I’m really glad you did, you know. I… I guess I never thought about it much, before I started working with you guys but… I was really lonely, you know? So when you showed up here, you didn’t just give me a job, you…”

The sudden lump in her throat forced her to fall silent, and she swallowed heavily, only now fully realizing how lonely she truly had been; her only regular contact had been Dr Gorin, and that mostly had happened over the phone, and now she was part of a team, working in an area she enjoyed, with people she could call friends, and even had found a woman like Erin, who apparently saw past her features and liked her for who she was.

“Hey”, Erin said, a bit alarmed at this sudden onset of emotion, reaching out to grasp Holtzmann’s hand, not quite sure what she wanted to say, but eager to make this better, “I’m really glad I did that too, and found you. You mean a lot to me Holtz…”

To her relief, she apparently had said the right thing, since Holtzmann looked up again to meet her eyes; and a moment later, the food was forgotten as the engineer leaned in to kiss her, the kiss starting out fairly innocent, but quickly growing more heated.

Again, Erin reminded herself that she had to give Holtzmann time and that pushing things wouldn’t lead anywhere; apparently though, the engineer had forgotten all about her worries when it came to doing more than cuddling and making out, since this time, she was the one to slide her hand beneath Erin’s shirt, the physicist unable to hold back a little moan when she felt calloused fingers glide over her bare back.

Wrapping her arms tighter around the blonde, Erin somehow ended up straddling her lap, but couldn’t say that she minded; and even though her brain was almost short-circuiting with lust, the physicist still managed to remember to keep her hands to herself, still mindful of how Holtzmann had reacted the last time.

“Um”, Holtzmann let out once they had pulled apart again for air, Erin still in her lap, both arms around her, the fingers of one hand playing with the small bun at the back of the engineer’s neck, sending pleasant shivers up and down her spine, “I feel we’re getting… excited but… before this goes any further I should probably… warn you.”

“You don’t have to”, Erin gave back, earning a doubtful look from the younger woman, “because it doesn’t matter, not to me, okay? And don’t take this the wrong way, but… I wish you’d stop reducing yourself to… this.”

She reached out and trailed her fingertips from Holtzmann’s brow to her jaw, for a moment not even sure if the engineer could actually feel her touch, with how severe the scarring was; even if she couldn’t though, her words clearly had had an effect, Holtzmann swallowing heavily, not stopping her though when she moved her other hand to the buttons of her shirt.

“I’m not going to freak out, I promise”, Erin reassured her once more, then leaned in for another kiss; and as the kiss deepened again, she slowly started opening the buttons, one by one, giving Holtzmann enough time in between to stop her, should she change her mind.

Holtzmann didn’t stop her though, only stiffening up a bit when Erin finished unbuttoning the shirt and slid the sleeves down her arms, pulling back from the kiss to make this easier, taking note of how the engineer held her breath as her upper body was exposed to the physicist’s gaze.

She could understand why Holtzmann was worried about freaking her out, but wondered if she could ever tell her that it actually was much less bad than she had thought it might be without having her take it the wrong way.

Erin was quite sure at this point that it had to be burn scars, and her heart clenched up in sympathy as she just had to imagine how bad the injuries must have been when they’d been fresh, how much it must have hurt; the scarring she already had noted at the engineer’s throat spread down her shoulder and upper arm, almost all the way to her elbow, and down her upper body to her ribcage, Erin finding herself wondering yet again what exactly had happened to her that she had gotten burned so badly, but figuring that now was not a good time to ask.

So, instead of asking, she lightly trailed her fingertips over the scarring, and judging from how Holtzmann shuddered in response, she certainly did feel something there; then, Erin kissed her again, and Holtzmann kissed her back at once, moving to unbutton her blouse, just so they would be in equal states of undress.

When Erin’s hands moved to her pants a short time later, she forgot all about her scars, and did so for quite a while.


	17. Chapter 17

Holtzmann let out a heavy breath as she slumped back onto the pillow, sweat on her brow and her heart racing in her chest; next to her, Erin was similarly flushed as she ended up flat on her back, taking a few moments to catch her breath before she snuggled up to the engineer, lazily running her fingers over the other woman’s bare stomach while Holtzmann still tried to regain control over her breathing.

“Ok, that’s it”, she said once she could be sure she could actually talk without panting in between the words, “my batteries are empty. You drained me, Dr Gilbert.”

“You were no slouch yourself”, Erin pointed out, feeling deeply satisfied and happy; once Holtzmann had realized that Erin truly wasn’t freaked out or turned off by the scarring, she had apparently made it her mission to make use of every single thing she knew about how to please a woman, and now, Erin found herself seriously wondering if she’d be able to walk straight in the next day.

She certainly hoped she would be, because she didn’t want to imagine the teasing which would come from Abby if the researcher would be able to tell how well her best friend had gotten laid.

“Happy to hear”, Holtzmann said, distracting her from those thoughts, “guess that means I didn’t forget any of the important bits since I did this the last time.”

“Obviously not”, Erin reassured her with a happy sigh, body going limp as she relaxed fully, only feeling better when Holtzmann moved one hand to run it through her hair.

“That feels nice”, she mumbled, making the engineer smile; for a while, they laid there in comfortable silence, Erin’s hand now resting on Holtzmann’s stomach while the blonde kept playing with her, until she cleared her throat, Erin craning her neck to look at her when she spoke up, her voice soft, but not trembling, showing that she meant it.

“I can tell you”, she said, finding it hard to look Erin in the eye again, “how… how it happened. If you want to hear it.”

“I want to hear whatever you want to tell me”, Erin reassured her, propping herself up on one elbow so she could properly look at her girlfriend without getting a crick in her neck, “but if it’s too painful, you don’t have to, okay? I want you to know that.”

“I know”, Holtzmann gave back, with a weak smile, “but, well… I think you should know. It’s no big dramatic tale, just… I was in my last year at MIT, you know, nuclear engineering. I was working in the lab with my mentor, Dr Gorin, and some other guys and… Dr Gorin suspected that one of them was responsible, they were goofing around with one of the projects, but there was too much damage to prove anything. Anyway… that project, it started to spit sparks and to smoke and then it blew up. I tried to shield another student from the blast and took the brunt of it, I don’t remember much after it went up in flames, just… Dr Gorin screaming for someone to call an ambulance and the pain.”

All Erin could do was pull her closer, having heard the small hitch in her breath at the last few words; Holtzmann let out a shuddery breath as she returned the physicist’s embrace, mumbling into her shoulder when she spoke on, Erin soothingly rubbing her back as the younger woman continued.

“It’s probably weird, you know”, she said, relaxing a bit at the soothing circles Erin rubbed on her back, “but…what I remember with the most clarity is Dr Gorin screaming. Because up until that point, I wasn’t even sure she’d be capable of any strong emotion, you know, she was always… reserved. So… when the pain hadn’t set in yet and I hadn’t realized how bad it was… hearing her scream like that, it really freaked me out. Anyway… the ambulance came, took me to the hospital, I was there for weeks, and shortly after I’d been released, I dropped out.”

“Poor you”, Erin showed sympathy, earning another weak smile from the engineer, still rubbing her back, “I wish I had known you back then, I would have kicked the ass of everyone who was involved in you dropping out. Ask Abby, I got quite good at bully ass kicking over the years.”

“I can imagine”, Holtzmann gave back, raising an eyebrow as she pulled back a bit so she could look at Erin’s face again, “from what I gathered, it was the two of you against the world for quite a while, huh?”

“Not for a while, for years”, Erin told her, shocking her with what she revealed next, “actually, until Patty and you came along. And it was quite… hard, for a while, you know, in college. No one believed us when we talked about the existence of ghosts or… believed me when I talked about what happened to me when I was a child. Abby tried to help, to keep them off my back, but that didn’t always work out.”

She let out a small sigh as she thought back to the times she’d had to face her bullies on her own, both at high school and at college; then, she pushed those thoughts aside, telling herself that this was in the past and that it wouldn’t do her any good to dwell on it.

“It got really bad, for my mental health”, she let Holtzmann know, figuring that she could share this, after the painful recollection Holtzmann had made for her, “so bad actually that I ended up going to therapy again. Luckily, it was more helpful than when I was a child.”

“We both got more than our fair share of bad times, huh”, Holtzmann mused, Erin nodding her agreement – before she smiled, then tenderly kissed the blonde, her eyes sparkling when she pulled back to look at her.

“We did”, she let her know, “but it led to us finding each other, so I’m perfectly good with it now.”

Holtzmann could only smile and nod at that, raising an eyebrow when Erin gave her quite the leery smirk a moment later, the physicist’s hand trailing down her stomach to her thighs, a low groan coming from her at what Erin said next.

“So”, the physicist wanted to know, “your batteries recharged yet?”

* * *

In the next morning, Erin and Holtzmann both were in a very good mood when they entered the lab; Erin’s mood was, in fact, so good that she didn’t even find herself bothered when Abby took one look at them and got the dirtiest grin imaginable on her face, the physicist just smiling back at her best friend as she trilled “good morning!”.

“Someone’s in a good mood”, Abby observed, Erin just smiling brighter while Holtzmann blushed a bit, “your mood is gonna be even better once I tell you I brought the donuts you like. You know, the ones filled with nougat.”

“Ooh, score”, Erin said gleefully, the engineer looking quite pleased by the thought of nougat-filled donuts too; and so, when Patty arrived a short while later, they were munching on donuts to go along with their coffee, and discussing the ideas for a containment unit Erin and Holtzmann had had the previous evening, before they had gotten distracted.

“Keeping them separate even in that unit sounds like a good idea”, Abby said, nodding thoughtfully, “like Holtz said, we don’t know what they might get up to when we put them together. And we really don’t need some sort of super ghost to grow in our very own lab.”

“Nuh-uh”, Holtzmann let out around a mouthful of donut, thankfully taking the time to swallow before she went on, “so if Erin and you could do some calculations for me, I’d be forever grateful.”

“I’m sure Erin will appreciate your gratitude”, Patty said, grinning, her grin only widening when Holtzmann cleared her throat; before the engineer could say something though, someone knocked the door to their lab, and a second later, before any of the women could ask whoever was there to come on, the door opened, two men in black suits entering, glancing around at the whiteboards and works in progress before they focused on the four women.

“You’re the Ghostbusters, yes?” the younger of the two wanted to know, Erin unable to hold back a frown at this misnaming and at the unexpected appearance of the men, suddenly feeling uneasy, even though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why; she cleared her throat, making them both look at her, the physicist trying hard to not avoid their gaze as she replied.

“We’re the Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination”, she let them know, “but if you want to know if we are the group which captured a ghost yesterday at the Stonebrook Theatre, yes, that’s us.”

“Too long”, the other man waved her correction aside, “we’ll just call you the Ghostbusters. If you’d be so kind to come with us?”

“Come with you to where”, Patty wanted to know, while Erin only felt her discomfort grow, exchanging an uneasy look with Holtzmann, both women starting at what the man replied, his tone quite indifferent.

“To the mayor’s office”, he let them know, “Mayor Bradley wants to see you.”


	18. Chapter 18

The mayor seemed friendly enough, even though his words weren’t, not really – after all, he did tell them that, while they would be allowed to continue their work, they would have to be painted as frauds to the public, if only to avoid mass hysteria.

Erin had to admit that he was making good points, but that didn’t mean she had to like it; she felt glum as she left the office with the others, here they were, after having faced years of being ridiculed or even seen as downright crazy, had actual proof in form of a ghost trapped back at their lab, and now they weren’t allowed to release anything about said proof, thanks to the mayor and his gag order.

She struggled to keep her anger and dismay about this new situation to herself as the men in black, how she secretly had dubbed them, drove them back to Higgins institute; Holtzmann clearly picked up _something_ though, as she glanced at her every now and then during the drive back, didn’t say anything though, but simply grasped her hand after a while and held it, Erin giving her a weak smile at the tender gesture.

Still she kept her thoughts and feelings to herself for the drive, and when they arrived at the institute and got out of the cars, she told the others to go inside without her for now and that she needed some fresh air first.

She could tell that Holtzmann was worried, but clearly unsure if she should offer staying with her or not; trying to reassure her that it was fine, Erin gave her another weak smile, then walked off and to the alley where they had done their first few weapon tests, leaning against the wall there and staring at the ground between her feet.

This was so unfair, she thought to herself, even though she knew that dwelling on this wouldn’t lead anywhere, because the mayor had made it quite clear that he would be adamant about this gag order; she had endured years of being mocked and bullied, not even her own parents had supported her, but had pretty much disowned her when she had refused to give up on her “wild ghost stories”, and now that she had proof, she wasn’t allowed to publish anything about said proof.

Sudden tears stung in her eyes and blurred her vision, and she angrily wiped at her eyes, telling herself that she shouldn’t act like a child, she was an adult and not the frightened eight year old she had been when she had had her first close encounter with a ghost.

“Erin?” Holtzmann’s voice distracted her from her thoughts, and she blinked furiously, not wanting her girlfriend to see her like this; apparently though, she hadn’t done a good job at hiding her dismay, since Holtzmann looked worried the moment she got a closer look at Erin.

“Oh Erin honey sweetheart no”, she fretted at once, Erin feeling touched despite her embarrassment at Holtzmann finding her in such a state, “don’t cry, please? Tell me what to do to make it better, hey, you want me to scare the mayor? I bet if I jumped out at him after dark he’d be scared!”

“I don’t want you to scare him”, Erin replied with a small laugh, the absurd mental image Holtzmann had put into her head helping her to keep the tears at bay, to her relief, “it’s just… I don’t know, it’s all so unfair. For years, I let people call me a fraud, a liar or even crazy, and now that I have proof, with an actual ghost caught in a trap, I’m not allowed to talk about it!”

“For now”, Holtzmann gave back, earning a questioning look from the physicist since it hadn’t seemed as if this gag order was a temporary thing when the mayor had been talking to them, said look prompting the engineer to elaborate, “um, that is one of the reasons why I came out here looking for you? The other, way bigger reason being that I was worried. Anyway! Patty and Abby got really pissed too at the mayor, and Abby was ranting in the car about how people got hurt and made a list for the man in black driving, and that’s when Patty realized something.”

“Oh?” Erin found herself interested despite her annoyance with the mayor; Holtzmann nodded, then let her know that it’d be easier to show her than to explain, Erin wiping at her eyes again before she nodded, grasping the engineer’s hand as they went back into the lab.

“There you are”, Abby exclaimed as the couple entered, giving Erin a concerned look, able to tell how hard the mayor’s words had hit the physicist despite how much Erin had tried to hide it, “are you okay Erin?”

“Fine”, Erin said, and even though Abby clearly didn’t believe her so easily, she accepted this, for now, “Holtz said you discovered something?”

“Oh yes”, Patty said, looking up from where she had been studying a map of New York City at her desk, “come look at this, Abby was recounting all the places where people got hurt and it… I don’t know, it sounded suspicious? So I marked them all on the map and… well.”

She gestured at the map, and all of Erin’s dismay about the mayor was forgotten as she saw that Patty had marked the locations where people had been attacked by ghosts – and that these marks could be connected, forming a large X, the physicist looking up to meet Abby’s eyes.

“Are these…”, she started, her worries only growing when Abby nodded gravely, then said “ley lines”; Patty and Holtzmann looked a bit confused at this, and Abby started to explain while Erin moved to one of their many bookshelves, finding the volume she wanted with impressive speed, considering the mass of books there.

“Erin and I dismissed the ley line theory, thinking it doesn’t have any merit”, Abby let the two women know while Erin let the thick book drop down onto the table, “but… well, it looks like whoever is doing this is charging the ley lines, so…”

Erin found the page she had been looking for and nodded glumly, then picked up the map and placed it on top of the open book; and they all just needed one glance to see what she had seen, the lines on the city map perfectly matching those of the map in the book.

“Guess we can’t dismiss that any longer, huh”, she said, making Abby nod, concern furrowing the researcher’s brow as she had to imagine all sorts of unpleasant consequences charging the ley lines like this could have, from the increased ghost activity to something even worse, like…

“A vortex”, she blurted out, eyes going wide, “what if he wants to create a vortex? Where do these lines cross, what’s at that spot?”

“A hotel”, Patty let her know after taking a closer look at the map, “the Mercado. No surprise there, this place has been creepy and made for hauntings even before it became a hotel. Lots of evil stuff happened there, you know.”

Suddenly having the feeling that they were on the verge of something very important and had to act fast, Erin moved to her laptop, and opened the hotel’s website; right on the very first page, there was a photo of the staff, and Erin couldn’t say that she was surprised when Patty pointed one of them out to them, a pale man about Holtzmann’s age, giving the camera a look she could only describe as “dead fish eyes”.

“That’s him!” Patty exclaimed, “that’s the guy from the subway!”

“I’m not even surprised”, Abby said oud loud what Erin was feeling, while Holtzmann was looking at the picture with a little frown, not noticing the curious look Erin shot her, “okay Ladies, we got a job to do. Let’s gear up and hit that Mercado.”


	19. Chapter 19

Erin felt quite excited when the four of them entered the hotel, even though that got a bit of a damper by the rude way the receptionist greeted them, not even bothering to say Hello, but snippily asking “what d’ya want?”; Abby took over and asked where they could find the janitor, the woman rolling her eyes in reply as she wanted to know what the man had done now.

“No, don’t tell me”, she then added, before any of the four had a chance to say something, “I don’t even wanna know. Basement.”

“Thank you”, Erin said politely, but the woman already was dismissing them, picking the phone up again; and so, the four of them made their way to the stairs leading down into the basement, feeling excited and a bit apprehensive, not sure what to expect.

Already from afar, they all smelled the strong scent of ionization, and readied their proton wands, just in case; Abby took a moment to exchange looks with the other three, then pushed the heavy iron door open, briefly stunned by the sheer size of the machine the janitor apparently had built there without anyone noticing, the man himself standing in front of it and fumbling around with knobs and buttons, flinching back though when Abby called out to him and told him to step away from the device.

“Ah”, he let out, turning to face them, not appearing all too worried, “the Ghostbusters. I have to say, you found me faster than I thought you would.”

“North”, Holtzmann said before any of the others had a chance to reply, making them wonder what she meant – when the man smiled and nodded, then performed a mock little bow, a nasty glint in his eyes when he straightened up again.

“You remember me, I’m honoured”, he said, Erin giving her a surprised look, “and how interesting that we ended up working on opposing sides of this. Surprising, too, seeing you never finished your PhD. You still gonna get around to that some day, Jillian?”

“Possibly while you’ll do laundry in prison”, Holtzmann shot back, the snark in her voice making Erin smirk, “now step away from your device there.”

“Look at you, all commanding”, Rowan taunted, snickering, unimpressed by the glare Erin sent his way, “you weren’t that brave back at MIT. I remember you slinking out of there like a kicked puppy on your last day.”

“Shut up”, Erin snapped, having enough of hearing him speak to her girlfriend like this, “and do as she said, step away from that machine. Now.”

“And go to prison?” Rowan shot back, “I think not.”

He bowed again, as mockingly as before – before he reached out with both hands and grasped parts of the machine, the four women crying out in shock as electricity ran through him, his body convulsing while his eyes rolled back into his head, foam forming on his lips and running down his chin.

“Holy shit”, Abby was the one to break the silence once he had collapsed, the smell rising from his dead body making her gag, “he just grabbed that without even hesitating.”

“Guess he really didn’t want to go to prison”, Erin mumbled, finding it hard to feel sympathy for the man; clearly, Holtzmann didn’t pity him too much either, simply moving past him as the machine let out an ominous noise, the other three getting nervous again as they realized they had no idea how far he actually had been in his plan when they had interrupted him.

“Holtz?” Erin called out when the engineer vanished behind the machine and various clanking sounds could be heard, “Holtz…? Are we good?”

A loud hissing sound answered her, and they all flinched; and then, the machine shut down audibly just as sirens came up outside, and Holtzmann reappeared, smirking as she nodded.

“All good”, she then said, giving the machine another look, just to make sure, “and I have to say, while he was gonna use it to kill us all, that is some impressive engineering.”

“Not as impressive as your work”, Erin told her, earning another smile; then, something else caught Holtzmann’s eye, and she turned, raising an eyebrow at what she spotted on a table close to the device.

“And apparently, we get our inspiration from the same source”, she said, picking the book up from the desk and holding it so that the other three could read the title, Erin and Abby grimacing when they saw it was their work.

“Is it weird that I’m still feeling a bit proud someone bought our book?” Erin wanted to know, earning an eye-roll from Abby while Holtzmann just snickered; she handed said book to the physicist, and just then, the government agents and the police arrived, reassuring them they would take it from there.

“And please remember”, one of the men in black said, with a strict look at the group, “be discreet.”

Erin just glared at him, not even dignifying that with any other sort of answer; he seemed unimpressed though, just looking back at her blankly until she dismissed him and left the basement, the other three following her, glad that they had stopped the man before he had been able to finish his plans, unaware that things were far from over.

* * *

“Look at this”, Erin said quite a while later, back at the lab, Rowan’s copy of Ghosts from our Past in her hands, “he doodled all over the pages, and it’s really creepy. If we hadn’t stopped him, he really would have opened that vortex.”

“I’m not surprised”, Holtzmann let her know as she moved to stand next to her and took a look at Rowan’s drawings, “he was already creepy back at MIT.”

Erin wasn’t surprised by that, either, shaking her head as she closed the book; briefly, she wondered if they should hand the book over to the mayor’s office, then figured that it didn’t matter anymore, with Rowan dead, forgetting all about that idea when Abby let Holtzmann and her know that Patty and she would go out and get lunch for them.

“Philly Cheesesteaks okay?” Patty asked, earning an enthusiastic agreement from Holtzmann and a nod from Erin; and while the researcher and the historian headed out, Holtzmann went back to her work and Erin excused herself to the bathroom.

By the time the physicist came back, the engineer was fully focused on her current project again, a weapon she was making for Erin; still she paused and looked up when the redhead put one hand on her shoulder, smiling at her.

“You know”, Erin said, not smiling back at her, “now with Rowan gone, the ghosts will probably stop being so strong again, too. Perhaps stop showing up at all.”

“Yeah, maybe”, Holtzmann gave back with a little shrug, not quite sure where this was going, but suddenly feeling a bit uneasy, even though she couldn’t quite say where this unease was coming from.

“Well, that would mean we wouldn’t need your services any longer”, Erin told her, and all at once, Holtzmann knew why she felt uneasy – there was something strange about the way Erin was looking at her, as if she was looking at a stranger and not at the woman she was actually dating, the feeling that something was off only growing at what the physicist said next.

“I’m sorry, but I think we have to let you go”, Erin said, “with no more need for gear, and research not being your strong suit…”

“That’s okay”, Holtzmann gave back, still feeling uneasy, “I can get other projects…”

“Not here”, Erin told her, voice cold now, a cruel smile curling her lips, one which was so un-Erin that it made Holtzmann’s skin crawl, “you’re fired. And I’m sorry, Jillian, but we can’t keep this… thing going on any longer, either. It was fun while it lasted, but, you know, my pity for you only lasted for so long.”

“Erin never calls me Jillian”, Holtzmann flatly replied, taking a step back, “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Erin. She’d never say such things, either.”

For a few more seconds, whoever was making use of Erin’s body like this just kept staring at her, clearly not having expected this reaction – before the physicist’s hand shot out with lightning speed and she grabbed the nearest blowtorch, swinging it around and slamming it into Holtzmann’s face before the engineer had a chance to react.

Stars exploded in front of her eyes as the hard metal cylinder connected, and before she knew it, she was on the floor, feeling blood trickle from her nose, the bit of air she still had left in her lungs forced out of her in a soundless huff when not-Erin straddled her, a cruel smile curling the redhead’s lips.

“You figured that out faster than I thought you would”, she said, the blowtorch hissing to life, “but no problem, I got a backup plan. If I can’t get you to run out of here in tears, I’ll just have to make sure another way you will never work with this team again. But see the bright side… you’ll never have to look at your ugly mug again.”

The cruel smile widened, and the blowtorch came down, Holtzmann’s eyes going wide as she fully realized the danger she was in, her mind racing as she tried to figure out how to get out of this.


	20. Chapter 20

Even though she knew that this wasn’t truly Erin doing this to her, Holtzmann didn’t want to hurt the physicist, and so, gave her best to keep the blowtorch away from her face in general and her eyes in particular without actually injuring Erin, her teeth grit as she pushed the redhead’s arm up.

Her nose was still bleeding, she could feel it trickle hot and sticky down her cheeks; she wondered if her nose was broken, but figured that this would be the least of her worries if she couldn’t fight Erin off.

“Stop struggling”, Erin snarled at her, the blowtorch moving down a bit as Holtzmann’s arms were growing tired, “I’ll make it quick if you—”

All at once, a shadow fell over them, and then her weight was gone from Holtzmann’s mid-section – as Patty grabbed her and somewhat roughly jerked her to her feet, accompanied by Abby demanding to know what the Hell was going on.

“That’s not Erin”, Holtzmann brought out, struggling to sit up, a wave of dizziness briefly washing over her and reminding her of how hard she actually had been hit, “I don’t know who or what it is but it’s not Erin…”

As if to confirm this, not-Erin stomped down hard on Patty’s foot, the historian letting out a yelp as she involuntarily let go of the physicist, the smaller woman twirling around at once and swinging the blowtorch, aiming for Patty’s head.

Quickly, Patty ducked, avoiding the hit; and while not-Erin was still off balance from the miss, Patty pulled back and slapped her across the face, hard, hard enough to throw her head aside, Abby and Holtzmann letting out a gasp in such perfect unison that it would have been comical, had the circumstances been different, when a cloud of ghostly blue-ish vapour shot out of the physicist and up to the ceiling.

Erin collapsed to her knees, face paling drastically, the blowtorch falling from her suddenly numb fingers; the apparition let out a malicious chuckle, then rushed out through the ceiling, leaving a few globs of ectoplasm behind, Holtzmann forgetting all about it as she hurried to her girlfriend’s side.

“Erin”, she said somewhat frantically, kneeling down next to her, “Erin, sweetheart, are you…”

“I’m so sorry”, Erin interrupted her, alarming her with how close to tears she sounded, flinging both arms around her and hugging her tight before she had the chance to say something, clearly not caring that she was getting blood on her shirt, “I tried to stop him, I really did, he was suddenly just _there_ and said all those awful things…”

“I know it wasn’t you”, Holtzmann reassured her, the pain in her face forgotten as she felt Erin tremble in her arms and rubbed her back soothingly; Erin held on tight a bit longer, then calmed down enough to pull back a bit, still pale, but to Holtzmann’s relief, she didn’t look as if she would start crying any second anymore.

“It was Rowan”, she brought out, running a shaking hand through her hair, “he… possessed me while I was in the bathroom, there was nothing I could do… And he hit you! You’re still bleeding! Someone get me a wet towel!”

Abby hurried off to do so, and even though Holtzmann figured that the bleeding would stop on its own in a minute or two, she didn’t try to stop the researcher, figuring that Erin needed to do this to feel better about what had happened, and not wanting to take this from her.

Abby returned and handed the towel to Erin, who pressed it against the back of Holtzmann’s neck; the engineer yelped at the sudden cold, momentarily wondering if this was still the right thing to do or if it had been replaced by some other, more modern method, then shrugged it off, figuring that, even if it wouldn’t help, it wouldn’t make it worse, either.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Erin wanted to know, giving her a concerned look; Holtzmann nodded, then grasped her free hand and squeezed it reassuringly, even managing to make the physicist smile a bit with her response.

“I’m good”, she reassured her, holding her gaze, eager to make it clear that she meant it, “ _we’re_ good, Erin. I knew it wasn’t you saying all these things, I think I suspected even before he slipped up and called me Jillian. I mean, you don’t even call me that when we’re in bed and I make you—”

“Okay!” Abby interrupted, Holtzmann snapping her mouth shut with an audible click and blushing furiously as she realized what she had been giving away in her eagerness to make Erin feel better, Patty laughing out loud at the look on her face; Erin cleared her throat, blushing a bit too, forgetting her embarrassment though when she realized that Holtzmann’s nose had stopped bleeding.

“Now that we know what Erin does and doesn’t call Holtz”, Abby went on, prompting Holtzmann to look embarrassed again while Erin just smiled this time, “let’s go back to the problem at hand. Rowan is still out there, and I doubt he will become Rowan the Friendly Ghost now.”

“He’ll still try to open the vortex”, Erin realized, “but he’ll need a body for that, and get back to the machine… we have to stop him.”

“Um”, Holtzmann let out, managing to sound timid even with just that one syllable, and finding it hard to meet Erin’s eyes when the physicist looked at her questioningly, reminding her of the first time they had met, “I… made a few extra gadgets for the team. I was just finishing yours, Erin, when Rowan interrupted so rudely. They might be useful but I didn’t really have a chance to test them yet so…”

“Let’s bring them”, Erin said, giving Holtzmann a look she hoped was reassuring when the engineer frowned doubtfully, “who knows what he will throw at us to keep us from stopping him. We might need all the extra firepower we can get.”

“They might blow up though”, Holtzmann mumbled, shifting uncomfortably, until Erin squeezed her hand and she glanced up at her again, now Erin being the one to make sure she’d hold the younger woman’s gaze as she replied.

“They won’t”, she said, earning another doubtful look, “I know they won’t. I trust you, Holtz.”

She had told her this before, and just like then, it was obvious that the words touched Holtzmann this time, too; and when Abby and Patty nodded and let her know that they trusted her, too, she had to swallow heavily, not wanting to respond to this kindness with crying.

“Alright”, she brought out once she could be sure she had the urge to cry under control, “I’ll go get them. I’ll meet you guys at the car.”

Erin nodded, taking the time for a brief kiss before she hurried to change into her coveralls; Abby and Patty followed suit, a strange mixture of fear and excitement filling the three women as they wondered what Rowan might come up with and if they would be at the hotel in time to stop him.

* * *

As it turned out, Rowan’s plan already was in full motion by the time the four women drove from the university; there was chaos in the streets, the sky had darkened ominously, and as they got closer to the Mercado, they saw several ghosts flying around, some of them cackling maliciously as they scared and went after the screaming pedestrians.

“What a mess”, Erin commented, leaning forward in the passenger seat to peer up into the darkening skies, only to flinch back when a ghost rushed right past the car, unsettlingly close to her face, “good job keeping it all under control, Mister Mayor.”

“Indeed”, Abby said, rolling her eyes, while Holtzmann grimaced, realizing that the street was getting blocked up and that soon, there’d be no way she could keep driving, “I wonder if they’re at least working on this too now or if they think we will solve it.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me if they leave the dirty work to us”, Patty grumbled, making the other three nod, “and then make us hush it all up again.”

“I don’t think this can be hushed up so easily”, Holtzmann pointed out, stopping the car, “and I’m afraid we have to walk from here on out, there is no way I can drive any farther.”

The others had to admit that she was right, with the street as blocked up as it was; and so, they all got out of the car and geared up, then got moving, proton guns out and ready, ready to fight and put an end to Rowan’s plans before things could get even worse for the city.


	21. Chapter 21

“Looks like he won’t just let us march up to the Mercado and stop him”, Abby commented as they arrived at Times Square, a whole army of ghosts milling around there, apparently waiting for them; a booming laugh came up as if in response, making them all flinch, a voice vaguely familiar to Erin and Abby following the laughter, showing that the ghosts indeed had been waiting for them.

“Welcome to the glory days of New York City”, Rowan boomed, louder than it should have been humanly possible, especially with him nowhere in sight, “have fun!”

“Doesn’t look so glorious to me”, Holtzmann mumbled as what appeared to be a sort of leader among the ghosts turned to look at them, swivelling on impossibly long, stilt-like legs; it led out a guttural sort of roar and pointed at them, the four women powering their proton wands up in response, and not a second too late, as a bunch of ghosts came rushing at them.

Holtzmann was nervous at first, worried that the extra gadgets she had made might end up malfunctioning and endanger or perhaps even hurt her team mates; to her relief though, the weapons seemed to work just fine, and soon, her nervousness faded and she began to feel proud instead, that feeling only increasing when Erin used the proton shotgun for the first time and took two ghosts out with one hit.

“Holy crap”, Erin let out, the look of wonder she gave the weapon warming Holtzmann’s heart and sending another surge of pride through her; Erin glanced over at her and smiled as their eyes met – only for the moment to be interrupted abruptly as a ghost slammed into her from behind, Holtzmann letting out a cry of dismay when the ghost actually threw the physicist, anger flaring up within her when Erin hit the ground with a yelp of pain.

She had built extra weapons for herself, as well, but hadn’t been sure she’d actually end up using them; seeing Erin wince in pain though after falling onto the proton pack made her blood well up, and without allowing herself to think about possible malfunctions and explosions, she pushed the button which brought out the proton pistols stored at the bottom of her pack.

“This is for throwing my girl, you transparent jerk!” she snapped as she fired them both at once, the ghost letting out a pained howl as the streams hit; and while Holtzmann took the apparition apart, Erin came to her feet again, grimacing a bit at the pain in her back, but telling herself that she had no time for this now, trying her best to ignore it as she brought up the proton shotgun again and fired at another ghost.

“You know”, she then said, moving closer to Holtzmann, an excited sparkle in her eyes, the fear she had felt previously for the moment forgotten, “that was really… charming. And inspiring. I’ll show you how much later, when this is over.”

“Ohoho”, Holtzmann let out, spurred on by this promise and blasting another ghost into oblivion; Erin winked at her, then fired again, Holtzmann focusing on the fight again, as well, the four women moving through the ghost army quite efficiently and with more ease than they had dared hope for when the battle had started.

“Holtzy, that thing is awesome”, Abby called out to the engineer as she used the Ghost Puncher Holtzmann had made for her to blast several ghosts in a row, grinning from ear to ear; Holtzmann smirked back at her, then moved her attention to Patty, just to make sure the Ghost Chipper she had made for the historian was working as well as Abby’s glove.

To her relief, it did, sucking in ghosts left and right; and with their forces combined like this, it didn’t take long until only the long-legged leader ghost was left, another roar coming from it as it stalked towards the four women.

“All together now, ladies!” Erin called out, shoving the proton gun into the holster on her thigh and reading the proton wand; the other three did the same, and they fired in perfect unison, the ghost’s angry roar soon turning painful as the proton streams caused obvious wounds, ectoplasm splattering from it and down to the ground, Erin hopping aside to avoid a large glob of it.

“Missed me!” she proudly called out as she kept firing, Holtzmann snickering in response; a second later though, the snicker died in her throat as the ghost took too much damage at last and exploded – and ectoplasm rained down, forcing them all to hop back, a rather large glob of the stuff still landing on her head though and making her grimace as she felt it seep through her hair and slide down to the back of her neck.

“Oh, ew, gross”, she let out, flailing a bit as she felt it slide down farther, into her coveralls and down her back, “oh jeez, that is disgusting!”

“I know, I know”, Erin showed sympathy, rubbing her back soothingly, only to grimace when she felt the slime squish beneath the fabric, but knowing what she could say to make it better, “but hey, I’ll help you wash it off when this all is over.”

Holtzmann blushed a bit at that, while Abby just shook her head and Patty rolled her eyes in mock exasperation; unperturbed by this, Erin just smirked, then holstered the proton wand, feeling high on adrenaline after the fight, something which clearly showed through her excited tone when she continued.

“The way to the Mercado should be clear now”, she said, almost bouncing on the spot, making Holtzmann smile at her excitement, “so let’s go and get this little creep!”

“Loving your fire”, Abby commented, earning a bright smile from her best friend – before the four of them set off again, eager to reach the hotel and put an end to this once and for all.

* * *

Erin still felt strong and heroic and able to do anything as she pushed the double doors leading to the Mercado’s lobby open and stepped inside; she thought about how, if this was a movie, there would be heroic music playing now, to mark the arrival of their little group of heroes… and then she slipped on something, and before she knew it, ended up falling on her back, her breath leaving her with an _ooff_ sound as she landed hard on the proton pack. Again.

“You okay?” Holtzmann wanted to know as Abby and she helped Erin to her feet; Erin let out a vaguely agreeing noise in response, looking down to the floor, and not surprised the slightest when she saw that she had slipped in a puddle of slime.

“Of course it’s slime”, she grumbled, “I’m starting to think the stuff has it in for me personally. Somehow.”

“You’re not the only one this time though”, Holtzmann pointed out, the slime having dried in her hair and on her back at this point; Erin gave her a sympathetic look, but just as she opened her mouth to say something comforting, the piano which until then had been standing in the corner came rushing at the four women, and they all had to dive out of the way, a loud clang echoing through the lobby when the instrument hit the wall.

“Awww”, that oddly familiar voice came up again, making them all glance up, to the balcony from which the lobby could be observed, “I missed. Too bad.”

“You possessed our _dean_?” Abby cried out, incredulous, staring up at the man; he laughed in response, shrugged, then held his hands out with the palms up in the perfect “well shucks” gesture, a malicious glint in his eyes when he responded.

“I wanted a guy body this time”, he let them know, looking down said body, “he’s not in the best shape, I guess, but still an upgrade, sorry, Dr Gilbert.”

“Oh shut it”, Erin snapped, only the knowledge that the dean would get hurt if she fired now keeping her from pushing the trigger, “and get out of the dean, you miserable little man.”

Rowan let out a mean snicker in response, then shrugged again – before he actually did Erin the favour and left the dean’s body, the man collapsing unconscious while Rowan rose to the ceiling, laughing again when Erin fired at once and he moved aside, the proton stream taking a chunk of plaster out of the ceiling.

“You need to work on your aim, Dr Gilbert!” Rowan teased as his ghostly form shot to the left to avoid Abby firing at him, “see, this is why I wanted a male body, we’re just better at things than you ladies. I’m surprised you made it all the way here!”

He shot right again to avoid Patty’s proton stream, snickering again; getting angry, Erin fired once more, noticing that, while Abby and Patty did so, too, Holtzmann just stood there and watched, brow furrowed in concentration as she followed Rowan’s movements.

Erin knew better than to ask though, and maybe make him realize that the engineer was planning something; and as it turned out a short while later, Holtzmann indeed had been making a plan, having watched Rowan closely – and so, knowing pretty much exactly where he would be when he avoided yet another shot.

Her proton stream hit him right in the middle, and he yelped as it wrapped around him; Abby let out a “yes!” while Patty cried “go Holtzy!”, Erin grinning widely and with pride as she pushed the trigger button, a second stream wrapping around Rowan a second later.

“Gotcha”, Holtzmann said, smirking, Rowan increasing his struggles in response; quickly, Abby and Patty fired as well, earning howls of rage from him when he found himself trapped by four streams now, all at once barely able to move more than squirm a little bit.

“No, damn you”, he yelled when he realized that he couldn’t free himself, “I will not end up in a trap in your stinking lab!”

He let out an articulated roar, giving them all a second to wonder if this was just a yell of anger or if he had another trick up his sleeve… and then, ghosts began to come rushing in from all sides, Erin’s eyes going wide when she realized what he was doing.

“He’s merging with them!” she cried out, Abby giving her a horrified look, all too aware what this could lead to, “we have to stop him, before he grows too powerful!”

“How?!” Abby gave back, grip on the proton wand tighten when she felt Rowan’s struggles against the streams increase; feeling awfully helpless, all Erin could do was look from her best friend at the ghost, only feeling worse when she saw that Rowan was growing, the ghost letting out a malicious laugh when his eyes met the physicist’s.

“I know what to do”, Holtzmann said all at once, eyes never leaving the ghost, “we’ll have to move fast. Take off your proton packs, toss them as close to him as you can, and then run.”

“What are you going to do?!” Erin demanded to know, suspecting at once that there was a part Holtzmann wasn’t telling them; the engineer just shook her head though, already unstrapping her pack, and Erin’s heart clenched up when she realized that there was no time to ask again, not with the alarm rate Rowan was increasing in size and strength.

Unable to shake the feeling that she was making a horrible mistake, Erin took off her pack as well, Abby and Patty doing the same thing; they heaved them as close to Rowan as they could, and the moment they had hit the ground, Holtzmann yanked a small, egg-shaped item from her pocket, Erin quickly realizing what it was.

She had a second to marvel at this idea, and another to hope it would work – then Holtzmann threw the proton grenade, snapped “now run!” at them and all four of them took off, running for the hotel’s front doors, Rowan roaring in anger behind them again as he realized what they had done.

Then, Erin heard the grenade go off, a strangely subdued sound, not the loud bang she had been expecting – before it felt as if a giant invisible hand slammed into her from behind, the ground vanishing from beneath her feet as she was sent flying, the world turning dark around her when she hit the pavement outside a few moments later.


	22. Chapter 22

_Oh God. Everything hurts._

Erin groaned softly as the various pains all over her body made themselves known; she felt as if a truck had hit her, and as the memories of what had happened slowly started to come back to her, she figured that this was quite close to what had happened.

_But if everything hurts, at least you know you’re still alive,_ she then told herself, groaning again as she rolled over onto her back; she took a few moments, then opened her eyes, blinking at the bright light, belatedly realizing that said light was a good thing, the strange darkening of the sky gone.

She took a few deep breaths, then dared to sit up, the world briefly spinning around her; she squeezed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths, then dared opening them again, grimacing as the first thing she saw the damage which had been done to the Mercado, the whole front of the building looking as if a giant wrecking ball had been swung into it.

“Erin?” she heard Patty from her left, turning her head even though that make her neck hurt; a few feet away, Patty was coming to her feet, and close to the historian, Abby was getting up, too… and then, her blood suddenly ran cold as she realized that she couldn’t see Holtzmann anywhere.

“Where’s Holtz”, she brought out, hearing her own voice muffled, as if her ears had been stuffed with wool, her fear only growing when the two women just exchanged a worried look; she staggered to her feet, ignoring the wave of dizziness which washed over her, and looked around frantically, heart racing in her chest now as she tried to spot the engineer.

“Holtz”, she called out, barely registering how Abby moved to her side and wrapped one arm around her waist, the researcher unsettled by how Erin was swaying on her feet, “Holtz! Holtzmann!”

“Holtzy!” Patty called out, as well, raising her voice to be heard over the sirens coming up in the distance, “Holtzy! Where are you?!”

“Oh God she’s not answering”, Erin fretted, “Abby, she was the last one to run out, what if she didn’t make it, what if…”

“I’m sure she’s fine”, Abby reassured her, hoping she wasn’t telling a lie, looking around as well, desperately searching for an unruly mop of blonde hair, then raising her voice, “Holtzmann!”

Erin felt her panic grow even further, her breath quickening and sweat forming on her brow; part of her realized that she was close to slipping into a panic attack, something which hadn’t happened to her for years, and clearly, Abby noticed as well, rubbing her back soothingly while she kept looking around.

“Over there!” Patty suddenly cried out, gesturing at an area a few feet away, Erin looking over so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash, at the same time relieved and afraid of what she might see.

A moment later, all her fear was forgotten – because while Holtzmann looked as banged up as Erin herself felt, she was coming to her feet, slowly and laboriously, but without anyone having to help her.

“Oh thank God”, Erin let out, still a bit shaky on her feet as Abby helped her hurry to where the engineer was on her feet now, “Holtz! I’m so glad you’re okay!”

She stumbled the last few steps, still unsteady on her feet, but managing to not end up flat on her face; Holtzmann moved to meet her, and they ended up embracing in front of the damaged hotel, then pulled Abby and Patty in for a group hug, the four women still holding each other close by the time police and the government’s men in black arrived.

* * *

The government men had insisted on having the Ghostbusters checked out at the hospital, even though all four reassured them that none of them was badly hurt; the good thing to come from having to go anyway, Erin supposed, was the knowledge that they really all were okay, except for some minor injuries they had sustained – and that the dean was alright, somehow having managed to not get killed even though he had been right there, albeit unconscious, when the packs had been blown up.

“Well, at least we know for sure now that we have no unnoticed internal injuries”, Erin commented as they all left the hospital together, “I guess that is calming?”

“Uh-huh”, Holtzmann let out, limping a bit as she walked along next to her girlfriend; Erin smiled at her and squeezed her hand, glad that they all were okay, especially after how frightened she had been when she hadn’t been able to spot Holtzmann anywhere right after the proton packs had been blown up.

“Ladies”, one of the men in black greeted them, standing next to one of the very not inconspicuous cars they used, “we’ve taken the liberty to have your vehicle returned to the university, so I’m here to give you a ride.”

“Well that is nice”, Erin commented, even though she figured that the man had some hidden motive and wasn’t just doing this out of the kindness of his heart; and shortly after they all had gotten into the car and he was driving, this assumption turned out to be correct, as the man spoke up, not taking his eyes off the road as he talked.

“The mayor’s PA wants to meet with you tomorrow”, he let them know, “at your lab, early afternoon.”

“So no day off after all the excitement?” Abby gave back, her sarcastic tone making the other three smile, “awww.”

“Oh well”, Holtzmann clearly didn’t mind much, “I have to build new proton packs anyway. Since I kinda blew them up.”

“And stopped Rowan”, Erin reminded her, “who knows what might have happened if you hadn’t come up with that. That was reckless and dangerous, but also quite the genius move, Holtz.”

Holtzmann blushed a bit at this, clearly still not used to getting these sorts of compliments; Erin gave her another smile, then reached over to grasp her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze before she focused on the man driving them again.

“We’ll be there”, she let him know, earning a vaguely agreeing grunt; and then, he said no more, until they arrived at the university and he stopped the car.

“Ghostbusters”, he said before they could get out of the car, making them all pause, “…good job.”

“Thank you?” Abby gave back, not quite sure how sincere this was; he gave her the briefest of smiles, then looked out the windshield again, clearly dismissing them, the four women getting out of the vehicle and watching him drive off, Patty shaking her head to herself before she snickered, making the other three look at her.

“Guess that was the highest praise we can expect from the likes of him”, she said, making her friends smile as well, “man, I wonder if that stick is so far up his butt that you can see it when he yawns.”

“Probably”, Erin said with a little snort, while Abby and Holtzmann snickered; then, Abby let out a tremendous yawn, and as if that had been some sort of cue, they all realized how tired they were, after all the excitement of the day.

“Okay, I’ll see you guys tomorrow”, Abby said, “not to be rude, but I just want to shower and then sleep.”

“Same here”, Erin nodded, then took Holtzmann’s hand again and looked at the engineer as she went on, “your place or mine?”

“Whatever you prefer?” Holtzmann gave back with a little shrug; figuring that her home was closer, Erin suggested her place, and the engineer shrugged again, then nodded, the two of them wishing Abby and Patty a good evening before they headed off to Erin’s home together, eager to get some quiet time together before it’d be back to business as usual in the next day.


	23. Epilogue

“I feel so much better now”, Erin sighed out, stretching before she rested her head on the pillow, Holtzmann nodding her agreement as she got comfortable next to her, then pulled the blanket up over both of them.

“Me too”, she then voiced her agreement out loud, as well, making Erin smile, their cuts and bruises for the moment forgotten, “much, much better. And now, I just want to lie here until we have to get up again tomorrow.”

“Oh I agree”, Erin gave back at once, snuggling up to her and making her smile again, “and we can get breakfast on the way instead of having it here, then we can sleep a bit longer.”

“I like the way you think”, the engineer said with a small snicker, earning another smile from the redhead; then, Erin propped herself up on one elbow and leaned over the blonde to kiss her, a slow and gentle kiss this time, quite different to the heated ones they had exchanged earlier, during the shower and afterwards.

“I’m glad you’re here with me”, Erin mumbled after the kiss, reaching up with her other hand to run her fingertips along the younger woman’s jawline, smiling again when Holtzmann’s breath hitched audibly, “I got really worried when I couldn’t find you anywhere after the packs blew up, and… I don’t know, I know we haven’t been together for that long yet but… you mean a lot to me and the thought of losing you…”

She trailed off, a bit frustrated at her apparent inability to get across what she wanted to say; apparently though, she had at least partially succeeded, since Holtzmann looked quite touched, smiling up at her as she leaned up for another brief, but tender kiss.

“I’m not going anywhere”, she reassured the physicist afterwards, “you’re not getting rid of me that easily, you know.”

“Good”, Erin smiled, kissing her again before she flopped back down onto the pillow; Holtzmann let out a small, content sigh, then turned her head to look at Erin, clearing her throat, Erin sensing at once that she was about to say something important.

“Or, well, maybe, I’ll go away for a little bit”, she said, earning questioning look from the physicist, “cause I… I’m kinda thinking about finishing my doctorate? I might go back to MIT, not for long you know, just… to get done. Shouldn’t take long, either, I was almost done when I… left.”

“Go for it”, Erin smiled at her, her immediate acceptance making Holtzmann smile as well, “I bet Dr Gorin would be thrilled to be your mentor again.”

“Yeah”, Holtzmann gave back, knowing this for sure without even having to ask the elder woman, “and I really feel like I should do that, even if I don’t need it for the Ghostbusters, I mean, I can build things without those two letters in front of my name. But… I kinda want to do this for myself.”

“I get that”, Erin reassured her, snuggling up to her again and letting out a small content sigh when the engineer wrapped both arms around her, moving one hand to caress her back, “and I think it’s a great idea. It will show how far you have come, you know? You could barely look me in the eye when we met and now…”

“Now I helped save the city”, Holtzmann said, earning another bright smile from her girlfriend, “and I got an amazing girlfriend, and good friends and… You told me you’d wish I’d stop reducing myself to my scars and… I think I can finally start doing that.”

“I think you started that a while ago already”, Erin corrected her, kissing her once more before she could try to contradict her; and after the kiss, they just cuddled for a while, relaxing in each other’s embrace, until they both fell asleep, getting the rest they needed after the long, exciting day they had had.

* * *

Just as the man in black had said, the mayor’s PA showed up at the lab in the next day, shortly after lunch time; Erin wondered if this counted as early afternoon when she greeted the woman, then offered her a seat, the younger woman shaking her head, clearly not planning to stay long.

“The mayor thanks for your discretion”, she said once the four women had formed a little cluster around her, “it’s not working, not at all, but he thanks you anyway. And it has been decided that we need to be prepared, in case something like this ever happens again. So the mayor wants you to continue your work, study this, with government funding. Not officially funded of course, but that should go without saying.”

“Of course”, Abby said, the hint of snark in her voice not unnoticed, but uncommented on by the PA, “good to know though, so thank you, Miss Lynch.”

“You’re very welcome”, the PA replied, “just please, keep discretion in mind, then I’m sure this will be a very productive partnership. Just call me in case you need anything.”

She handed her card to Erin, the physicist politely thanking her; and then, they all watched her leave in silence – and the moment the door had closed behind her, Erin let out a squeal and threw her arms around Abby, the two of them jumping up and down in delight for a few moments before they regained their composure.

“Government funded ghost research!” Erin cheered, bouncing on the spot again, Holtzmann feeling as if she’d melt into a puddle of goo from all the cute, “this is the best thing ever! And we accomplished this, the four of us together!”

She pulled Abby close for another hug, then took hold of Patty and Holtzmann as well, the four of them once again ending up in a group hug; and as she stood there, her arms around her friends and girlfriend, Erin felt perfectly happy and content with her life, all at once just sure that things would only keep getting better from here on out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it is done :) Thank you all for reading, kudos and commenting, all your lovely words keep making my days :D


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